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Perhaps it is an aberration. Maybe it is a trend.

The recent and substantial improvement in Orange County private small-school boys basketball was underlined Sunday when the CIF-Southern Section released its playoff brackets.

Three of the four teams in the private, small-schools San Joaquin League are among the top four seeded entrants in their playoff divisions. Orangewood Academy is seeded No. 1 in Division 6, Capistrano Valley Christian is seeded No. 2 in Division 5A and Saddleback Valley Christian is No. 4 in 5AA.

In a four-team league like the San Joaquin League, only the top two finishers received guaranteed entry into the playoffs. Saddleback Valley Christian won the league championship with a 5-1 league record, Capistrano Valley Christian was No. 2 with a 4-2 league mark and Orangewood was No. 3 at 3-3.

To get into the playoffs, Orangewood had to receive an at-large berth and did. CIF-SS assistant commissioner Rainer Wulf, in charge of the section’s management of basketball, said he did not recall an at-large team being top-seeded in its division before.

Like many small, private schools in other counties, Orange County’s small, private schools are attracting talented basketball players whose families seek small, faith-based schools that are not as high-profile athletically as some of the county’s larger private schools. Mamadou Ndiaye, the 7-foot-plus center now at UC Irvine, for that reason went to Brethren Christian which has fielded strong basketball teams for a couple of decades.

Success in these playoffs might heighten the profiles of San Joaquin League teams.

Elsewhere in the playoffs:

• It is rare that a league’s No. 3 team gets a first-round home game, but Laguna Beach did. The Breakers, the No. 3 team from the Orange Coast League, is home Wednesday against Salesian of Los Angeles in a 4AA first-round game.

• First-round games rarely are rematches of a previous season’s first round. There is one in 1AA, in which Los Alamitos plays host to Long Beach Jordan for the second year in a row in the first round. Los Alamitos beat Jordan, 68-51, in the 1AA first round last season.

• Aliso Niguel, the No. 2 team from the South Coast League, perhaps drew the most-challenging first-round assignment of any county No. 2 team. The Wolverines play at Inglewood in a 1AA first-round game Friday. Inglewood has won seven in a row, including a win over Open Division team Redondo Union.

• Admission to CIF-SS playoff games through the semifinals is $10 for adults and $5 for students with valid student identification and for children 12 and younger.

• Two teams got first-round byes: Beverly Hills, in Division 3A; and Crespi of Encino, the top-seeded entrant in Division 4AA.

• First-round games are Wednesday in divisions 3AA, 3A, 4AA, 4A, 5AA, 5A and 6. First round games are Thursday in the Open Division, and on Friday in divisions 1AA, 1A, 2AA and 2A.

• CIF-SS championship games are March 6 and 7. Many division finals, including the Open Division final, will be at Honda Center on March 7.

• All first-round winners in the CIF-Southern Section Open Division will be sent to the CIF State tournament. The CIF-Southern Section can select up to four teams to represent it in the CIF State Open Division playoffs. CIF-SS Open Division teams not selected to the CIF State Open Division playoffs will be placed in their CIF State enrollment-based divisions for the CIF Southern California Regionals, the qualifying tournament for the state championships.

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