Los Alamitos’s boys basketball team has a first-round home game in the CIF Southern California Regional Division I playoffs.
That could be a huge advantage.
The Griffins are 12-1 in their gym, where they will play Cathedral Catholic of San Diego on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Los Alamitos fans are plentiful and loud at the Griffins’ basketball home games. That and the team’s raucous style of press-and-run basketball creates a challenging setting for a visiting team.
“It’s an intimidating environment at our place with the students and our style,” said Los Alamitos coach Nathan Berger. “Sometimes it can feel like we’re on a 15-0 run when it’s really just a 4-0 run.”
Los Alamitos might have had the largest and loudest student support at Toyota Arena in Ontario on Saturday when the Griffins beat Mira Costa 63-60 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship game.
“I thought we brought a lot of noise and a lot of support,” Berger said.
BACK TO WORK
For teams that lost in the CIF Southern Section semifinals and are playing Tuesday in the regional playoffs, it will be 11 days between games for them.
Those Orange County teams that will play Tuesday after that long gap are Irvine, Pacifica and Saddleback.
Irvine coach Harry Meussner said the Vaqueros, who lost to St. Bonaventure in overtime in the CIF-SS 2A semifinals, mixed in some fun and work during their long break.
“We took Monday (Feb. 24) off and on Tuesday played some pickup basketball,” Meussner said. “On Wednesday we had a similar practice with a little more structure. We just just needed to get out and play and run and remember why we love basketball.”
Irvine will be in San Diego on Tuesday night to face Francis Parker in a Division II regional game.
NOTES
Santiago went from a third-place finish in the Coast League to the CIF-SS Division 4AA championship. The Cavaliers won the title Saturday with a 64-49 victory over Ramona at Toyota Arena.
“Our last game in league was won on a last-second shot (by Jayson Baude for a 54-52 win over Rancho Alamitos),” Santiago coach Matt Moorhouse said. “And we’ve been rolling ever since. Somehow we just kept winning.” …
Fairmont Prep 6-10 senior David Abisogun stayed involved in the game after fouling out with 2:43 left in the fourth quarter of the Huskies’ 64-60 overtime win over Pacifica Christian in the Division 2AA final Saturday. “You see him cheering on his teammates on the sideline even when he felt bad that he’d fouled out,” said Fairmont Prep coach Joedy Gardner. “The best thing about him is that he’s the best teammate I’ve seen in a player.” Abisogun scored 20 points and collected 15 rebounds. …
The CIF-SS finals this past weekend started a three-year arrangement the Southern Section has with the Toyota Arena to have section championship basketball games there. Paid attendance Saturday at Toyota Arena was 3,241 for the morning session and 11,625 for the evening session. …
Southern California Regional playoff dates are Tuesday for the first round in Divisions I-V and on Wednesday for the first round in the Open Division and in Division VI. The second round for Divisions I-V is Thursday. The semifinals for all divisions are Saturday, followed by the regional championship games March 11. …
All regional games are to be played at the gyms of the home teams at 7 p.m., including championship games. …
Admission to SoCal Regional games is $5 for children and students and $9 for adults for the first two rounds and the semifinals. Admission for regional finals is $8 for children and students and $12 for adults. GoFan.co is the exclusive seller of tickets for the regional games. …
Southern California Regional champions and Northern California Regional champions meet in the CIF State finals March 14-15 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
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