Boys basketball notes: Four Mission League teams earn Open Division playoff berths

The Mission League, once again, has more proof for its claim to be the best high school basketball league in California — and maybe the country.

Sierra Canyon, Notre Dame, Harvard-Westlake and Crespi were all good enough to earn berths to the CIF Southern Section Open Division, which is the section’s top playoff field. The four berths marks the first time the Mission League has had four teams in the Open Division.

The field consists of 12 teams that will compete in four pools of three, which will break up into bracket play. The top two finishers in each pool will advance to a win-or-go-home quarterfinal. The last-place finisher in each pool will be relegated to a bracket with four teams where one last game will be played. The winners of those games will advance to the CIF State playoffs.

The CIF Southern Section has allocated 10 state playoff berths from the 12-team Open Division. That means two teams will eventually go home.

OPEN POOLS

Pool A: No. 1 Sierra Canyon, No. 8 Corona del Mar, No. 9 Crespi

Pool B: No. 3 Redondo Union, No. 6 Corona Centennial. No. 11 Etiwanda

Pool C: No. 2 Santa Margarita, No. 7 Harvard-Westlake, No. 10 Damien

Pool D: No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 5 St. John Bosco, No. 12 La Mirada

Pool play will be played on Wednesday, Friday and Tuesday. Higher seeds host for the duration of the postseason.

D1 PLAYOFFS FULL OF LOCAL TEAMS

On top of the Mission League providing four of the 12 teams in the Open Division, the San Fernando Valley as a whole has provided a bevy of teams for the Division 1 playoffs, too.

Heritage Christian will host Santiago/Corona, Village Christian will host Pacifica Christian/Orange County, and St. Francis will host Rancho Christian. Oaks Christian will be on the road at Mira Costa, Loyola is at Los Alamitos, and Thousand Oaks will travel to Long Beach Millikan.

All aforementioned games are first-round matchups set for Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Crean Lutheran in Irvine is the No. 1 seed in Division 1.

TOP SCORERS FROM THE AREA

Here’s a quick look at the area’s top scorers now that the regular season is over. Look for these bucket getters to take their level of play up a notch in the postseason.

(points per game, name, school, year)

27.5ppg — Will Conroy Jr., Village Christian, Fr.

27.1ppg — Amare Larane, Knight, Sr.

25.7ppg — Cherif Millogo, St. Francis, Jr.

23ppg — NaVorro Bowman Jr., Notre Dame, Jr.

22ppg — Joe Sterling, Harvard-Westlake, Sr.

21.6ppg — Logan Stotts, Moorpark, So.

20.1ppg — Houston Rolle, Heritage Christian, So.

19ppg — Brandon McCoy Jr., Sierra Canyon, Sr.

DIVISION 3 IS FULL OF LOCAL SLEEPERS

Don’t be surprised if a local program wins Division 3.

Milken, led by new coach Ryan Coleman, is the No. 1 seed in Division 3. In the postseason, star power can take you a long way, especially in a tight game when a team knows who to turn to. That will be Grayson Coleman, who scored 45 points in a game in December. Milken will host San Marino in round one.

Oak Park is led by Beau Prophete, a 6-foot-5 guard averaging 17 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game for the Eagles. Oak Park is traveling to Temecula Valley in the opening round.

Palmdale Knight might have the best player in the division in Amare Larane, the Golden League MVP. Knight will play at Aquinas in San Bernardino Wednesday night.

Golden Valley, La Canada, Viewpoint, Crescenta Valley and Eastside are in Division 3, too.