The 10 a.m. starting times Saturday for Canyon’s boys basketball team and the JSerra girls team in CIF-Southern Section championship games might look difficult.
“We practice at 10 a.m. every Saturday,” Canyon coach Nate Harrison said. “We haven’t played a game at 10, though. It’s not a great time.”
However …
“The team we play, Westlake, has to do it, too,” Harrison said. “And they’ve got a longer drive.”
It’s 73 miles from Westlake High in Westlake Village to Honda Center, site of the Canyon-Westlake 2AA final that starts six games Saturday at Honda Center. It’s eight miles from Canyon to Honda Center.
JSerra’s girls play Bishop Montgomery of Torrance in the 4AA final at Azusa Pacific University on Saturday at 10.
“We haven’t played a game that early since fall league,” JSerra coach Mary Rossignol said. “Sometimes our Saturday morning practices will go at 9 or 9:30.”
Rossignol made this plan: Her team will go to Azusa Pacific today to watch the school’s boys team play Oaks Christian of Westlake Village in the 4AA final there at 7:15 p.m. The Lions will spend the night at a nearby hotel.
“We’ll watch the boys game,” she said, “and figure out what the arena looks like, how team teams are announced and everything else. We’ll be ready.”
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• Mater Dei’s boys basketball team has won 30 games for the 10th season in a row.
• El Dorado’s boys basketball team finished fifth in the seven-team Century League and advanced to 2A quarterfinals thanks in good part to the play of senior forward Riley Kemmer. He averaged 19 points over three playoff games and 16 points a game for the season.
• El Toro senior guard Tanner Aguera averaged 21 points over three playoff games. His season average was 15 points.
• Tickets for the boys and girls basketball championships at Azusa Pacific are $13 for adults and $7 for children and for students with valid student identification. Tickets for boys and girls basketball games at Godinez are $12 for adults and $5 for children and students.
• Parking is free at Azusa Pacific, $5 at Godinez.
• Tickets for Honda Center basketball games are $15 for adults and $10 for children and students. Tickets can be purchased at ticketmaster.com. Schools participating in the basketball finals were given tickets to sell. For basketball and every other sport – fall, winter or spring — call the schools first for ticket availability before making the trip to the school.
• Parking at Honda Center is $15.
• CIF-SS boys and girls basketball finals will be streamed live at FoxSports- West.com. The boys Open Division final, Mater Dei vs. Chino Hills, will be televised live by Fox Sports West on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
• Of the nine wrestlers it had at the CIF-SS Masters Meet, Calvary Chapel had five of them advance to this week’s CIF State Championships in Bakersfield. Fountain Valley and Servite had four state qualifiers each.
• The Loara and Newport Elks baseball tournaments were greeted by baseball weather Thursday when both tournaments started.
• The Loara Tournament has 32 teams in it, two of which are in calhisports.com‘s California preseason top 20: No. 12 Fountain Valley and No. 20 Los Alamitos.
• The Elks is a 66-team tournament divided into five divisions. The top division is the Frank Lerner Division, named for a late-great county umpire. The 12-team Lerner bracket has three state top 20 teams in it: No. 8 Mater Dei; No. 9 Orange Lutheran; and No. 14 Huntington Beach.
• Admission to the CIF-SS boys and girls soccer championships is $10 for adults and $5 for children and for students with valid student identification.
• For updates on Saturday’s boys basketball championship games at Honda Center, check ocvarsity.com all day and follow me at twitter.com/ stevefryer.
• And if you see Mater Dei’s Stanley Johnson please remind Johnson we need him to wear the dark uniform for the county boys basketball player of the year photo session in a couple of weeks. Thanks.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
