2013 Boys Basketball Archive Stories

Tesoro senior Tanner Lancona's college recruitment came to an end once again last weekend; this time the 6-9 forward signed a National Letter of Intent to play college basketball and attend Saint Louis University.Lancona had previously signed with Washington State during the November early signing period, but was released from his NLI at

A public memorial service for veteran Orange County sports official Al Hackney is Sunday at 11:30a.m. at Ocean View High's gym. Hackney, 79, died in early April after a fight with cancer. He officiated high school and college sports for 60 years. ... Services for county basketball referee Matt Sanders, who died last

When Tesoro senior Tanner Lancona and the Washington State basketball program decided to part ways, plenty of people took notice. The Tesoro forward initially signed with the Cougars in November, but earlier this month he announced a "mutual" separation from WSU and was flung back into the recruiting process. In his renewed recru

Elijah Brown has heard it before. He expects to hear it again, that his famous father is a large reason for his opportunities. Brown, a basketball player Mater Dei, signed his letter of intent with Butler University on Wednesday, the first day of the regular signing period for senior athletes in basketball and many other sports.

This list contains the names of athletes who signed their letters of intent Wednesday. (Athletes who will be attending Ivy League schools or the service academies sign letters of commitment, and they are included on this list.) (

The CIF-Southern Section released its list of the 100 greatest athletes over the weekend to go along with its 100-year anniversary. The list included 20 athletes who participated in a CIF-SS sport for an Orange County high school. The list also represents the the inaugural class for the CIF-SS Hall of Fame. Criteria for selection

Somebody misspoke or somebody misunderstood. Either way, the result was a misrepresentation of the impact of transfers in Mater Dei's boys basketball program. Asked about the recent transfer of All-Trinity League sophomore guard Rex Pflueger to Mater Dei from JSerra, Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight was understood to say that the tr

Mater Dei forward Stanley Johnson put out an updated list Thursday of the colleges he is considering. On the list, sent out via his Twitter account, were seven teams. Here they are, in the order he listed them: Arizona, Kentucky, Florida, Oregon, Duke, UCLA and USC. Johnson was the Register’s All-County player of the y

Tesoro senior Tanner Lancona will not be playing his college basketball at Washington State next year, according to a message posted to his Twitter page today. In a post at 2:16 p.m. Thursday, Lancona said: "Per mutual agreement I have de committed from WSU today and am pursuing other offers as of today. Sorry to all my WSU supporters."

Jeff Sink has resumed coaching girls basketball at Brea Olinda after coaching the school’s boys basketball team the past two years, Brea principal Jerry Halpin confirmed this morning. Sink, left, coached Brea’s Ladycats for 17 years before taking the boys basketball coaching position the past two years. He replaces Ki

Following the 2012-13 basketball season, Sean Sullens arrived at a familiar fork in the career path of many coaches. Realizing there wasn't much more he could accomplish as an assistant coach, he wondered, "Am I ready for the next step or do I want to be an assistant the rest of my career?" In the end it wasn't much of a question; he bel

Rex Pflueger, widely considered one of the top sophomores in Southern California boys basketball, has left JSerra and plans to enroll at Mater Dei when students return from spring break next week. The 6-foot-5 Pflueger averaged 11.4 points this past season for the Lions and is known for his smooth jump shot. Russell Pflueger, Rex

ALL-CIF SOUTHERN SECTION (Selections made by the SCIBCA) DIVISION 1AA Players of the Year: Jordan McLaughlin, Etiwanda, Jr.; Stanley Johnson, Mater Dei, Jr.Coach of the Year: Dave Kleckner, Etiwanda Roschon Prince, Long Beach Poly, Sr.; Brandon Randolph, Inglewood, Sr.; Eva

If you don't see your league listed here, please have a representative from your team or league submit it to preps@ocregister.com. BOYS BASKETBALL ACADEMY LEAGUE MVP: Mamadou Ndiaye, Brethren Christian, Sr. Coach of the year: Brian Carmer, St. Margaret's

IRVINE - There were passionate pleas, debate over the need for change and the emergence of an upstart proposal. Orange County's final releaguing meeting for the 2014-2018 cycle produced plenty of intrigue Thursday but not much change. County principals approved a counter-proposal by Brea Olinda that recommends that Yorba Linda mo

SACRAMENTO – Stanley Johnson was excited when he found out last week that Mater Dei would play Archbishop Mitty of San Jose in the state boys basketball final. "Ooh, Aaron Gordon," Johnson said. "He's really good." Johnson was pretty good, too, on Saturday. He scored 26 points, more than half of Mater Dei's total, to lead t

FOUNTAIN VALLEY – Three times Fountain Valley baseball coach Deric Yanagisawa asked pitcher Monty Plattner how he felt. Three times Plattner said he felt good. He looked good too. Plattner went the distance and did not allow an earned run in the Barons' 5-3 Sunset League victory against Los Alamitos at Fountai

The Orange County Register and OCVarsity.com have made their selections for the All-County boys basketball teams for the 2012-13 season. FIRST TEAM STANLEY JOHNSON Mater Dei, Jr., 6-7, F

SANTA ANA – Shadows have accompanied Jordan Strawberry for nearly his entire life. It's hard to escape them with a family tree like the one Strawberry possesses. All of these descriptions have probably been used to identify Mater Dei's senior point guard: Darryl's son, D.J.'s brother, Miles Simon

The Orange County Register and OCVarsity.com have made their selections for the All-County boys basketball teams for the 2012-13 season. FIRST TEAM Click here to read about the first team players. SECOND TEAM Jamal Aytes, JSerra, Sr., 6-6, F, 15 ppg Payton Banks, Orange Lutheran, Sr., 6-6, F,

SANTA ANA – Mater Dei forward Stanley Johnson missed all 10 of his shots in the first half of last week’s CIF state regional final. The shots weren’t forced and they were mostly on line, they just weren’t falling. Good misses, he called them. His coach, Gary McKnight, saw it differently, remembering Johnson covere

El Toro was a one-dimensional team that did one thing really well: win. The Chargers won 28 games, were a South Coast League champion, advanced to a CIF-Southern Section championship game and won a state tournament game. That's not bad for a team that had one offensive skill, which was outside shooting. For guiding the Ch

Orange County leagues in future years probably will look very much like they do now. Underway is the process to create new league alignments for a period of four school years starting with the 2014-15 school year. Principals from the 73 county high schools in the Orange County Area met Wednesday to review proposals for league configurati

ONTARIO – One half belonged to Jordan Strawberry. The other half was Stanley Johnson's. Put them together, and the result was a 60-37 victory for Mater Dei over Etiwanda in the CIF Southern California Regional Open Division championship game Saturday at Citizens Business Bank Arena. With Johnson missing all 10

ONTARIO – Some people think mistakes are only mistakes if you repeat them. On Saturday, Mater Dei made sure not to make the mistake of taking Etiwanda lightly again. The Monarchs got off to a fast start, displayed some air-tight defense and received superb play from Jordan Strawberry in a 60-37 victory against Etiwanda in t