Let’s take a look at the South Coast League so far this season …
Tesoro and San Clemente are tied for first place in the five-team league. Both have 2-1 league records. Trabuco Hills and Aliso Niguel are 2-2, and El Toro is 1-3.
El Toro coach Todd Dixon offered the “anybody can beat anybody” evaluation.
“That’s definitely a cliché,” Dixon said Monday. “But it’s definitely true.”
The results support that.
San Clemente defeated Trabuco Hills. Trabuco Hills defeated El Toro. El Toro defeated San Clemente.
Tesoro defeated Aliso Niguel. Aliso Niguel defeated Trabuco Hills. Trabuco Hills defeated Tesoro.
“It’s whacky,” Dixon said.
That’s definitely true, too.
Jump stops around Orange County boys basketball:
• Corona del Mar and Northwood, tied for first place and both undefeated in the Pacific Coast League, play Tuesday night at Northwood. They are the only teams in O.C. boys basketball that are undefeated and tied for first place in a league.
• Other top games this week: Tuesday, Cypress at Tustin and Canyon at Foothill; Wednesday, Santa Margarita at Orange Lutheran, Tesoro at San Clemente and Bolsa Grande at Santiago; Friday, Sonora at Buena Park and JSerra at Santa Margarita.
• Bolsa Grande is 4-0 in the Garden Grove League. Asked what needs to be done to keep the Matadors on track for a second straight league title, Bolsa Grande coach Scott Snyder said, “We have to keep stretching our guys out in practice to try to get them taller, and have them drink a lot of milk.” Only two of the nine Matadors who played in their win over Garden Grove on Friday are taller than 5-foot-11.
• Santa Margarita lost at JSerra, 78-76, in overtime on Jan. 11, so the Eagles will be out for revenge in their home game against the Lions on Friday.
• My ranking of the county’s 11-25 teams: 11. Buena Park (18-3); 12. Los Alamitos (15-6); 13. Crean Lutheran (16-6); 14. Corona del Mar (15-6); 15. Foothill (15-6); 16. Ocean View (15-6); 17. Huntington Beach (14-8); 18. Northwood (15-6); 19. Trabuco Hills (11-11); 21. Tesoro (15-5); 22. Canyon (12-9); 23. San Clemente (13-8); 24. Servite (8-11); 25. Godinez (19-3).
• Reserved seats are sold out for the Nike Extravaganza’s Feb. 4 evening session. Some general admission tickets and a few floor seats remained available Monday afternoon. Go to materdei.org/tickets for information and to purchase tickets.
• Seven teams ranked in CalHiSports.com’s California top 20 are in the Nike Extravaganza: No. 1 Sierra Canyon; No. 2 Chino Hills; No. 4 Mater Dei; No. 8 Fairfax of Los Angeles; No. 11 St. Augustine of San Diego; No. 14 Corona of Centennial; and No. 18 Santa Margarita. Mater Dei plays St. Augustine, which Mater Dei defeated earlier this season, and Santa Margarita plays Fairfax.
• Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight, pretty much the lead matchmaker for the Nike Extravaganza, said this year’s lineup of games might be as good as any in the 23-year history of the showcase event. “It just sort of fell together this way,” McKnight said. “Sierra Canyon is having an unbelievable year and when you have Chino Hills playing Oak Hill Academy (of Virginia), that’s a pretty special one, too.”
• The Open Division “watch list” for the CIF-Southern Section’s Open Division was unchanged when the CIF-SS rankings were released Monday. Thirty-five teams are on the list, including eight O.C. teams: Edison, Esperanza, JSerra, Mater Dei, Saddleback Valley Christian, Santa Margarita, Sonora and Villa Park.
• Open Division teams will be announced Feb. 10. CIF-SS basketball playoff brackets will be released Feb. 12. First-round games are Feb. 15 for all divisions except for the Open Division, which will play its first-round games on Feb. 17. Wild-card games are Feb. 14 if necessary, which they weren’t last season.
Contact the writer: sfryer@scng.com
