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  • Sonora coach Mike Murphy is hopeful that team will have...

    Sonora coach Mike Murphy is hopeful that team will have a lot of success this season thanks to its two standout seniors, Josh Rodriguez, left, and Ben Rico.

  • Sonora will likely be one of the top teams in...

    Sonora will likely be one of the top teams in Orange County this season, and it will be led by seniors Ben Rico, left, and Josh Rodriguez.

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Sonora’s boys basketball program achieved many “firsts” last season.

The Raiders played in a CIF-Southern Section boys basketball championship game for the first time. They got to the CIF Southern California Regionals for the first time, and got their first Regionals win. Sonora set a school single-season record for most boys basketball wins, with 29.

“A lot of neat things happened,” Sonora coach Mike Murphy said. “It was a really fun year.”

Murphy hopes that his 30th year coaching the Raiders will be the most fun one yet. It could be. Sonora has two All-CIF players among the eight who are returning from last season’s team.

“That’s great, but it’s also a curse,” Murphy said. “Expectations are so high.”

Forward Ben Rico and point guard Josh Rodriguez were All-CIF as juniors on last season’s 29-5 team. Both were All-Orange County third-team selections.

Rico was Sonora’s leading scorer at 19 points a game. Rodriguez, who averaged 17 points and five assists, was Freeway League player of the year.

Another returning starter is 6-foot-7 senior center Steven Murphy, who averaged 11 points and seven rebounds last season. Senior guard Christian Rhodes scored six points a game, and more production is expected from 6-6 senior transfer Aashad Womack. A promising group of sophomores includes 6-5 Austin Carter.

“From the end of last season until now,” Murphy said, “we’ve probably played close to 100 games like most teams have. We know we can beat anybody, but we lost to teams that aren’t all that great, too. So our guys know we can lose to anybody, too.”

PLAYOFFS

Teams have been grouped into one of the CIF-SS’s 11 playoff divisions first by enrollment, with teams moving up or down to other divisions based upon their three-year playoff-points profile. Thus, some teams of mid-level enrollment could be moved to higher divisions because of their recent playoff success.

There again is an Open Division. A selection committee will choose up to 16 teams for the Open Division, but the number of teams could be fewer.

The old “11 wins and you’re in” or “12 wins and you’re in” standards for playoff qualifications are gone.

At-large teams will be selected only to fill 32-team brackets. If there are more than 32 automatic qualifiers in a division, wild-card round games will be played to reduce the field to 32 teams.

CIF-SS championship games will be played March 6 and 7 at Honda Center, Azusa Pacific University and Godinez High. The CIF Southern California Regionals, the qualifying tournament for the state championships, are March 11-21. State championship games are March 27 and 28 at Cal’s Haas Pavilion.

NOTES

The season began this week with a few tournaments and nonleague games. Coaches for a Cause, a single-day showcase that also is a fundraiser, is today at Ocean View High. … Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight went into the season with 995 career wins, most in state history. … Two county teams are in CalHiSports.com’s preseason top 25: Mater Dei, at No. 4; and Orange Lutheran at No. 24. … CIF-Southern Section polls will be released Dec. 15. … How the Coast View Conference breaks down its teams: Capistrano Valley, Laguna Hills, San Juan Hills, Tesoro and Trabuco Hills are in the Sea View League; Aliso Niguel, Dana Hills, El Toro, Mission Viejo and San Clemente are in the South Coast League. … How the Century Conference breaks down its teams: Canyon, Esperanza, Foothill and Villa Park are in the Crestview League; Brea Olinda, El Dorado, El Modena and Yorba Linda are in the North Hills League. … Last year’s CIF-SS championship teams from Orange County were Mater Dei (Open Division); Canyon (2AA); Santa Margarita (3AA); and JSerra (4AA). County runnerups in CIF-SS finals were Mission Viejo (1AA); Villa Park (1A); Sonora (2A); Brea Olinda (3AA); and Saddleback Valley Christian (5AA).

MORE FROM BOYS BASKETBALL PREVIEW ’14-15:

BOYS O.C. TOP 10

TOP 10 PLAYERS TO WATCH

OTHER PLAYERS TO WATCH

IMPORTANT DATES

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com