It’s time for Chapter Four of the high school boys basketball season.
Chapter One is nonleague play, including December tournaments. Chapter Two is league play. Chapter Three is the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
Chapter Four is the CIF State tournament. The CIF Southern California Regional playoffs begin Tuesday in Divisions I-V, and Wednesday for the Open Division.
The champions from the Southern California Regional will play the champions from the Northern California Regional in the CIF State Championships on March 11 and 12 at Golden Center 1 arena in Sacramento.
All eight teams from the Open Division of the CIF Southern Section playoffs automatically qualified for the SoCal Regional, including Crean Lutheran (22-6) and Mater Dei (28-4). For the regional playoffs, Mater Dei was put in the Open Division and Crean Lutheran in Division I.
All of the teams that advanced to the CIF-SS semifinals in Divisions 1-5A qualified for the Southern California Regional playoffs, including Orange County teams: JSerra (20-10) in Division I; Edison (26-5), Foothill (27-3) and San Juan Hills (27-4) in Division II; Dana Hills (19-10) in Division III; and Fullerton (17-15), Garden Grove (22-8), Sunny Hills (24-8) and Western (19-9) in Division IV.
Garden Grove, San Juan Hills and Western won CIF-SS championship games Friday.
Garden Grove defeated Fullerton 54-50 in the Division 4AA final at Garden Grove High. Miguel Ortega was a force, as usual, inside for the Argonauts, scoring 17 points, and Vidal Jimenez made a clutch 3-pointer in the final minute.
San Juan Hills beat La Mirada 59-49 in the 2A final. John McFadden led the Stallions with 22 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and four steals. Eight different Stallions scored in the game at La Mirada High.
Western’s Ahmad Hammouri scored 27 of his 35 points in the second half of the Pioneers’ 65-49 win over Dos Pueblos in the 4A final in Goleta.
The first round of the SoCal Regional is Tuesday for Divisions I-V. Second-round games in those divisions are Thursday, and the semifinals are Saturday. The regional finals will be held March 8.
The Open Division has a different schedule. First-round games are Wednesday and the semifinals are Saturday. The Open Division regional final is March 8.
All games are at host-school sites. Games will start at 6 p.m. except for Crean Lutheran’s first-round home game Tuesday. Crean Lutheran’s boys game against Cathedral Catholic will start at 8 p.m., after the Crean Lutheran girls play Bonita Vista at 6 p.m.
Admission for preliminary round games is $9 for adults, $5 for students, senior citizens (65 and older) and children (5 and older). Admission for SoCal Regional finals is $12 for adults, $8 for students, senior citizens and children. GoFan.co is the CIF ticketing website.
The first-round schedule for games involving Orange County teams:
TUESDAY
Division I
JSerra at Fairfax, 6 p.m.
Cathedral Catholic at Crean Lutheran, 8 p.m.
Division II
Francis Parker at Foothill, 6 p.m.
Birmingham at San Juan Hills, 6 p.m.
Edison at Mission Bay, 6 p.m.
Division III
Mt. Carmel at Dana Hills, 6 p.m.
Division IV
Fullerton at Chatsworth, 6 p.m.
Sunny Hills at Monte Vista, 6 p.m.
Western at Golden Valley/Bakersfield, 6 p.m.
Los Angeles CES at Garden Grove, 6 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Open Division
Mater Dei at Bishop Montgomery, 6 p.m.
