Biggest league favorite in O.C.?

Few Orange County teams are heavily favored to win their league championships. One of those few is Orangewood Academy of the Express League.

The Spartans are in first place with a 2-0 league record after league victories over Crystal Cathedral, by 50 points, and Aciaciawood, by 35. Orangewood is 12-5 overall, including nonleague victories over larger schools Los Amigos and Capistrano Valley Christian.

Orangewood coach Leslie Aragon said this season's team is the best of his four years coaching there.

"It's the best team in just the way we play," Aragon said. "This team just plays harder."

Senior 5-foot-6 guard R.J. Arriola, last year's Express most valuable player, is scoring 17 a game. The other two parts of what Aragon calls "our three-headed monster" at guard are 5-11 junior Collin Monty, scoring 12 points a game, and 5-9 sophomore Steven Morales, scoring 8 a game.

Orangewood is a Seventh-Day Adventist private school in Garden Grove. Enrollment is 83. A Christian denomination, the Seventh-Day Adventist church observes Saturday as the Sabbath. Thus, Orangewood does not have athletic events from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

• Ocean View coach Jim Harris got his 600th career victory two weeks ago when Ocean View beat Mission Viejo. He is fourth coach in county boys basketball history to reach 600, and thus is fourth on the county boys basketball career coaching victories list, behind, in order, Gary McKnight of Mater Dei (812 victories), Tex Wallis of La Habra (656), and Tom Danley of Katella (618). Of that group, Harris and McKnight are the active coaches.

• Capistrano Valley has lost four in a row, the first time that has happened in Cougars coach Brian Mulligan's 14-year tenure.

• Top games this week: Tustin at Canyon, Tuesday; La Habra at Sonora, Wednesday; Laguna Beach at Calvary Chapel, Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.; Mater Dei at Santa Margarita, Friday; and Katella at Pacifica, Friday.

• The MLK Invitational will be at Century on Saturday. It is a seven-game event, including one girls game. The schedule: Century girls vs. Connelly, 10:30 a.m.; Godinez vs. St. Anthony of Long Beach, noon; Century vs. Brethren Christian, 1:30 p.m.; Villa Park vs. Segerstrom, 3 p.m.; Mission Viejo vs. Beckman, 4:30 p.m.; Campbell Hall of North Hollywood vs. Gahr of Cerritos, 6 p.m.; and Corona del Mar vs. Canyon, 7:30 p.m.

• Mater Dei will play in the Spalding Hoophall Classic on Monday, the final day of the four-day event in Springfield, Mass. The Monarchs will play Whitney Young of Chicago, which features Michael Jordan's son, Marcus. Whitney Young will play in the Nike Extravaganza, on Feb. 7 at Mater Dei, against Fairfax of Los Angeles.

• Tickets for the two-day Nike Extravaganza are on sale at the Mater Dei athletics ticket office, at the school's athletics center. Tickets for the Friday (Feb. 6) session, which has four girls games and one boys game, are $10. Tickets for the Saturday (Feb. 7) morning session of five boys games are $12, and tickets for the Saturday evening session of four games are $12 and $22.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com