Prep Rally: It’s win or go home time in high school basketball
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Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The state basketball playoffs begin this week with lots of rematches expected.
State playoffs
It’s win or go home time in high school basketball. No more pool play. No more keep playing after a bad night. The state playoffs get underway with Southern California regional action this week as the competition heats up trying to reach Sacramento for the state championships March 14 and 15 at Golden 1 Center.
Eastvale Roosevelt and Ontario Christian received the No. 1 seeds for the Open Division boys and girls regional playoffs. Neither is a lock to make it to Sacramento. Each drew a first-round bye. There are potential roadblocks ahead. For girls, Ontario Christian is facing possible rematches against Sierra Canyon and Etiwanda. For boys, Roosevelt may have to get past two-time defending state champion Harvard-Westlake.
Teams that didn’t win in the Open Division during their section tournament have dropped to Division I for the state tournament. Games begin Tuesday and Wednesday.
Here’s the link to pairings.
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Boys basketball
Brayden Burries and Eastvale Roosevelt came through to win the Southern Section Open Division championship. Here’s the report.
Los Alamitos won Division 1 in a close game against Mira Costa. Here’s the report.
Westchester won its 16th City Section basketball title. Here’s the report.
Sun Valley Poly won its first City title since 1999 by holding off Grant in Division I. Here’s the report.
It was a weekend of excitement and oddities. Here’s a look.
Girls basketball
There’s a new top team in Southern California high school girls basketball. Ontario Christian toppled two-time defending state champion Etiwanda 65-63 to win the Southern Section Open Division championship. Here’s the report.
Hamilton won the City Section Open Division championship. Here’s the report.
Here’s the championship scores for boys and girls.
Baseball
No. 1-ranked Corona is 3-0 and will play 3-0 La Mirada on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. Seth Hernandez has 15 strikeouts in two games with no walks.
Huntington Beach opens its season Tuesday against Harvard-Westlake at Blair Field. Jake Chung has done well in a relief role for Harvard-Westlake.
Crespi won the Easton tournament championship, defeating Simi Valley in the final. Tyler Walton has been impressive pitching.
Mater Dei went to Texas and has come away 5-0.
El Segundo is 5-0 going into a showdown against Los Alamitos.
Sylmar is looking strong early on in the City Section with wins over Chatsworth and Taft.
Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.
Softball
Norco continues to impress with seven consecutive wins to start the season, including wins over Los Alamitos and La Mirada last week. Sophomore Leighton Gray has been supplying power.
Orange Lutheran is 3-0. Kai Minor has six hits.
Granada Hills is 5-1. Zoe Justman had two home runs.
Carson is 3-0, including a 5-4 win over Redondo Union.
Oaks Christian finally opens its season Wednesday against Chaminade.
Soccer
El Camino Real got its golden goal to win the City Section Open Division boys soccer championship over Birmingham. Granada Hills won the girls title over Cleveland. Here’s the report.
JSerra won the Southern Section Open Division boys championship over Loyola. Here’s the report.
Santa Margarita won the Open Division girls title over Corona Santiago. Here’s the report.
Track
Jack Stadlam of Temecula Valley pulled off the most stunning performance of the early track season, running 45.69 in the 400 meters at Vista Murrieta, the second-best performance in history by an Inland Empire athlete. The first is held by Olympian Michael Norman when he was running for Vista Murrieta.
Even more shocking is that Stadlam is a former basketball player who only went out for track only last season for the first time. He ran in only one 400 race. He was a 100 and 200 runner.
Now the question is how fast he can run in the 400.
Volleyball
Mira Costa is 10-0 with wins last week over Newport Harbor and San Clemente.
Corona del Mar is set to play Loyola on Tuesday in a big match.
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Notes . . .
Branden Anderson is the new football coach at Thousand Oaks. He was the offensive coordinator at Newbury Park. . . .
Matt Kanne has been named basketball coach at Servite. . . .
Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe said he was fired as an assistant coach at Edison after his well-publicized protest at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting. . . .
Junior receiver Christian Davis of St. John Bosco has committed to Sacramento State. . . .
Orange Lutheran defeated Mater Dei to win the Southern California Division I regional in girls water polo.
From the archives: Dylan Volantis
Former Westlake pitcher Dylan Volantis, a 6-foot-6 freshman at Texas, is off to a good start in his collegiate career.
He threw 4 2/3 innings of scoreless ball against Dartmouth, recording four strikeouts while giving up one hit while showing off a 94 mph fastball and nasty slider. The fact he’s left-handed and throwing that hard makes him a pitcher to watch.
Here’s a look from last season.
Recommendations
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Oaks Christian and UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger preparing for the NFL combine.
From the Crimson.com, a story on former Harvard-Westlake guard Robert Hinton at Harvard.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Sierra Canyon star JuJu Watkins leading USC past UCLA.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time...
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
