The Nike Extravaganza on Saturday will feature the best collection of high school boys basketball talent to be found in Orange County this regular season.
Friday’s Nike Extravaganza schedule is pretty good, too.
The two-day event at Mater Dei includes eight teams in the California state top 25. Seven Nike Extravaganza teams are on the CIF Southern Section “watch list” of candidates for its elite Open Division of the CIF-SS playoffs.
Centennial of Corona, 20-3 going into this week and No. 1 in California in CalHiSports.com’s state rankings, plays Nevada state No. 3 Liberty (11-7) on Saturday at 9 p.m. State No. 2 Harvard-Westlake (23-1) plays state No. 11 De La Salle of Concord (17-4) on Saturday at 6:20 p.m.
Centennial defeated Harvard-Westlake in last season’s CIF-SS Open Division championship game before going on to win the CIF State Open Division championship.
Friday’s five games includes Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman, 13-5 going into this week and the No. 1 team in MaxPreps.com’s Nevada state rankings, against Heritage Christian (15-6) at 6 p.m.
Also on Friday, scheduled for 9 p.m., Mater Dei plays Orange Lutheran. Orange Lutheran (15-7) two weeks ago defeated Mater Dei for only the second time and is No. 1 in the Orange County top 25. Mater Dei (18-5) is No. 5 in O.C and No. 19 in the state.
County No. 18 San Juan Hills (13-9) plays Rolling Hills Prep (19-5) on Friday at 4:30 p.m. Rolling Hills Prep coach Harvey Kitani is No. 5 in California boys basketball coaching wins with 926.
The Mater Dei girls basketball team, No. 1 in the county and 22-2 going into this week, plays county No. 6 Esperanza (19-3) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday starts at 8 a.m. with Servite (12-11) vs. county No. 12 Los Alamitos (17-6). A good matchup of two county teams is No. 6 JSerra (18-5) vs. No. 10 Crean Lutheran (16-6) at 1 p.m. Coronado (10-8), No. 5 in Nevada state rankings, plays O.C. No. 7 Foothill (22-2), an Open Division watch list team, at 2:20 p.m.; California No. 4 West Ranch (23-1) plays Virginia state No. 14 Bishop O’Connell at 3:40 p.m.; and state No. 7 and Open Division watch list team Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks (16-8) plays state No. 6 St. Augustine/San Diego (18-3), at 5 p.m.
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The many excellent players in the Nike Extravaganza include Crean Lutheran freshman Kaiden Bailey, Mater Dei senior All-County forward Zack Davidson, who signed with Montana, Harvard-Westlake senior forward Brady Dunlap, who signed with Notre Dame, Capistrano Valley senior guard Efe Gucoglu, Duke-signed senior guard Jared McCain of Centennial, West Ranch senior forward Andrew Meadow, who signed with Boise State, and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior guard Dusty Stromer, who signed with Gonzaga.
The schedule is at ocregister.com/tag/high-school-basketball/ for both days.
Tickets are available online at GoFan.co. They are $12 for Friday and $12 and $20 for Saturday.
