Prep Rally: Basketball championship week loaded with big matchups

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s championship week in high school basketball. Let’s examine the big matchups.

Trophy week

For the first time in the history of the City Section, a new school will be crowned upper division boys champion. King/Drew will play Los Angeles CES at Pasadena City College at 6 p.m. on Saturday. LACES is the No. 8 seed and King/Drew No. 2. LACES has 10 seniors, many of whom have been together since sixth grade. King/Drew starts two sophomores, a freshman, junior and senior. In a season of parity, the previous powerhouses are nowhere to be found.

The best game of the week could be Southern Section Open Division girls. Sierra Canyon is 30-1. Etiwanda is 28-3. They’ve waited all season to meet and could end playing twice in the coming weeks, just like last season. Their game is 6 p.m. on Friday at Cal Baptist. Here’s a report.

The Southern Section Open Division boys final has Harvard-Westlake taking on Eastvale Roosevelt in a battle of elite guards. Roosevelt starts four guards. Harvard-Westlake has three guards headed to USC, Harvard and UCLA. It’s an 8 p.m. Friday at Cal Baptist. Brayden Burries of Roosevelt and Trent Perry of Harvard-Westlake are player of the year candidates.

Another great game this weekend matches Windward against Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in an 8 p.m. Division 1 final at the Toyota Arena in Ontario. Notre Dame has won this season in an arena setting at Crypto.com Arena. Windward’s reliance on three-point shooting will be severely tested.

Here’s the weekend matchups.

Basketball rewind

Ryan Conner made two clutch shots, one to tie game and one to win in final seconds of LACES 52-49 win over Chatsworth in City Section Open Division semifinal.

(Nick Koza)

How many times in basketball player has a player made consecutive threes in a matter of two seconds? Ryan Conner of LACES pulled it off to turn defeat into victory at the City Section Open Division semifinal at El Camino College. Here’s the report at the stunning scene.

Conner is a 6-foot-8 senior who made a three with 3.8 seconds left to tie the game against Chatsworth, then made a three off an out-of-bounds play with 1.5 seconds left for an improbable ending.

Harvard-Westlake was dominant, holding Sierra Canyon to 38 points and St. John Bosco to 40 points en route to winning its Open Division pool.

Westchester and Birmingham qualified for the City Section Open Division girls’ final. Here’s the report.

Horry to play for UCLA

Christian Horry of Harvard-Westlake lets Isaiah Barnes and Crespi fans know how he feels after making a three.

(Craig Weston)

Christian Horry, the son of three-time Lakers world champion Robert Horry, is headed to UCLA as a walk-on. He’s a starter for Harvard-Westlake known for his tough defense and three-point shooting.

Here’s the report.

Baseball

Corona and Orange Lutheran get to settle who’s No. 1 in high school baseball with a scheduled Monday championship game in the PBR tournament at Hart Park (weather permitting). Corona’s pitching in the opening week was outstanding. And just think it will get even better when Brady Ebel becomes available following the end of the transfer sit-out period. Orange Lutheran knocked off Harvard-Westlake to advance to the final.

Another impressive team has been Westlake, which is playing El Camino Real in the championship game of the Easton tournament on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Birmingham. Here’s a report on outstanding left-handed pitcher Dylan Volantis.

La Salle is 4-0 under coach Andy Nieto.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

Girls water polo

Orange Lutheran achieved perfection, going 28-0 and winning the Southern Section Open Division girls’ water polo championship with a win over Mater Dei. Here’s the report.

Palisades won the City Section girls’ water polo championship. Here’s the report.

Soccer

It’s showdown time in City Section soccer. Top-seeded Granada Hills hosts El Camino Real in the semifinals for Division I boys on Tuesday with Birmingham hosting Fremont. Anthony Villa came through with clutch goals for El Camino Real in a win over Palisades. Here’s a report.

In girls, Palisades has a showdown with Cleveland. El Camino Real is playing Granada Hills.

In the Southern Section Open Division boys, unbeaten Arlington will face Mater Dei on Friday at Long Beach Veterans Stadium.

In Division 5 girls, Campbell Hall has reached the championship game under retiring coach Marty Rackham, who has been at the school for 18 years. He was a pro soccer player in England and an actor/comedian. He told his players this would be his final season, so they are trying to send him out with a ring. On the team is Chloe Ballard, who comes from swimming royalty. Her father, Matthew, was an All-American swimmer at Birmingham during the 1980s.

Here’s the boys’ bracket.

Here’s the girls’ bracket.

Teenage speed racer

Palos Verdes High senior Jacob Yesnick races in a Trans Am 2 Mustang several times each month.

(Eric Van Arsdale)

There’s a teenager walking around campus at Palos Verdes High who deserves to be a candidate for the next advertising campaign as “the most interesting man in the world.”

By day, Jacob Yesnick, 18, is an unassuming 6-foot-1, 173-pound senior with a 3.9 grade-point average. By afternoon, when his classes are done, he’s absorbed working on engines at the family auto shop. On weekends, he’ll try out his Mustang with a Ford 351 Windsor engine that accelerates to 180 mph.

Yes, Yesnick is a teenage race-car driver who will race on the national Trans Am 2 circuit this year after previously competing in the TA2 West Coast series. He started at 5 years old as a go-kart racer and has been winning championships at various levels since then. Along the way, he learned how to build, fix and master everything to do with car engines.

Here’s his story.

Lacrosse

Loyola had a group of outstanding freshmen lacrosse players last season. Now a year older, the Cubs could be a title contender. They opened with an 11-1 win over Palos Verdes.

Here’s the Southern Section boys’ lacrosse rankings.

Here’s the Southern Section girls’ lacrosse rankings.

Track

The track and field season began with some good marks.

There was a remarkable 800 at the JSerra Invitational, where JSerra sophomore Alden Morales set a school record in 1:49.91 to edge Cathedral senior Ambodai Ligons. How Morales was able to run that fast in the first race of the season makes him an exciting runner to watch this spring.

Eyan Turk of Woodcrest Christian, the state Division V cross-country champion, set the Ayala Invitational meet record for 3200 meters in 9:20.60.

At the indoor Simplot Games in Idaho, Jordan Coleman of Granada Hills took home first place in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.97. He also won the 200 in 22.49 seconds.

Boys’ volleyball preview

Loyola’s Sean Kelly tries to spike the ball past Mira Costa’s Tread Rosenthal, right, and Dominic Bell during the Cubs’ sweeping win on Friday night.

(Nick Koza)

Sean Kelly, the best 18-year-old boys’ volleyball player in America, is not standing pat on his talents. When Loyola High had a week off from school last month, he called coach Mike Boehle and asked him to open the gym and feed him passes.

“His work ethic and what he wanted me to do was pretty amazing,” Boehle said.

At 6 feet 7 and 180 pounds, Kelly towers over most. Then, when he leaps and crushes the ball, it’s like experiencing a mini-earthquake as it hits the gym court.

“He can take us to another level by himself. He can take over a match by himself,” Boehle said.

Here’s a look at Kelly and other top players in the Southland.

Wrestling

The state wrestling championships return to Bakersfield this weekend at Mechanics Bank Arena starting Thursday.

The championship finals begin at 6:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Notes...

Chaminade kicker/punter Ryon Sayeri has committed to USC.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

All-American kicker Ryon Sayeri of Chaminade has committed to USC. . . .

Citos Marinez is the new football coach at Rowland after guiding Jurupa Hills to a Division 8 championship. . . .

Harvard-Westlake’s leading soccer scorer, junior Theodore Ottosson, has committed to Pennsylvania. . . .

Windward has decided to discontinue its football program. Players who transfer to other schools will not be subject to transfer rules and can play immediately. . . .

Softball player Cat Benitez of Garden Grove Pacifica has committed to UC Santa Barbara. . . .

Hector Novoa has resigned as football coach at Bell Gardens. . . .

Former Nogales football coach Gus Martinez is the new head coach at Anaheim. . . .

Junior Brooklyn Drumwright from Santa Margarita has committed to Stanford for women’s volleyball. . . .

The high school football transfer portal continues. Mater Dei picked up one of the nation’s top sophomore receivers in Chris Henry Jr. from Ohio. Here’s the latest transfers.

From the archives: DeShaun Foster

Former UCLA great DeShaun Foster is introduced as the school’s new football coach.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

Former Tustin High running back DeShaun Foster, 44, was named head football coach at UCLA after serving as the running backs coach since 2017. He set a state record with 59 touchdowns his senior year at Tustin before heading to UCLA, then the NFL.

“This is a dream come true,” Foster said. “I always envisioned being a Bruin ever since I was young, and now being the head coach at my alma mater is such a surreal feeling, and I’m grateful for this opportunity. The foundation of this program will be built on discipline, respect and enthusiasm. These are phenomenal young men, and I’m excited to hit the ground running.”

Here’s a story from 1997 on Foster’s MVP season at Tustin.

Recommendations

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Taft High star Spencer Dinwiddie joining the Lakers.

From the Washington Post, a story on a high school athlete who plays four sports for four different high schools.

From Yahoo, a story of a high school girls basketball team walking off to protest fans’ behavior.

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