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SANTA ANA – The Heritage Christian High boys’ basketball team traveled – twice – to Mater Dei High in Santa Ana for games this season.

And, on each occasion, the southward-bound traffic on Highway 5 left Coach Paul Tait  more than just a tad antsy while checking his watch frequency as the Warriors’ bus driver maneuvered thru a near-quagmire during the 60-mile trek to Orange County.

So, when the CIF Southern Section’s Division 1 bracket was unveiled early Sunday afternoon and he saw where his team was sent to play, Wednesday night’s game wasn’t going to be another of those “dang, are we going to get there in time to even warm up before the game?”

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – Seven formidable clubs – including the No. 2 team in the west – are the challengers standing in the way of Corona Centennial winning a third consecutive CIF Southern Section Open Division title.

Full disclosure: I’m on the Open Division advisory and selection committee.

Coach Josh Giles’ 25-3 team drew the No. 1 seed in the eight-team field that was unveiled by the CIF SS office early Sunday afternoon.

The Huskies are led by three seniors – guard Jared McCain and posts Aaron McBride and Devin Williams – as the core of the program that is 79-6 over the past three seasons and hasn’t lost to a California-based opponent since May 28 of 2021.

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SAN DIEGO – Six-foot-four J.J. Bartelloni is one of the best of the “unsigned/non-committed) seniors in Southern California.

As to remind folks – and college coaches – of that, he put all those shooting skills on display Saturday evening for his Torrey Pines High team during the Battle at the Bay at Mission Bay High.

Bartelloni (pictured) hist six 3s in the first half, and seven overall, in route to a 32-point performance that helped the Falcons improve to 18-8 while toppling San Diego, 62-54, in one of the seven games played during the event.

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RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA – The Trinity League used games in three different Orange County gymnasiums Thursday night to demonstrate just how formidable its representation in the CIF Southern Section boys’ basketball playoffs is going to be over the next three weeks.

*At Santa Margarita, St. John Bosco was in control from jump while knocking off the host Eagles, 56-48, to wrap up its regular season at 9-1 in league and 24-4 overall.

The Braves are No. 6 in this week’s BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 25 and will be snuggly among the eight teams in the Open Division bracket when its officially unveiled by the CIF SS administration Sunday at noon.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – And then there was one . . . week remaining in the Southern California high school basketball regular season.

The L.A. City Section playoff brackets will be unveiled on Saturday with the Southern Section following on Sunday.

There are multiple games remaining this week that will impact those brackets, notably for the eight-team field in the Southern Section’s Open Division.

*The first of those tips off in Playa del Rey Monday evening, with St. Bernard (No. 7 in the updated BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25) plays host to No.

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