#high-school-basketball

#high-school-basketball

Rebranded as Brave Christian, the boys basketball program has surged into relevance behind a roster reshaped by improved talent and elevated by two international players from the Ivory Coast - freshman star JP Oka and sophomore Adama Kone - who have quickly become among the area's most intriguing talents. Driving the vision is coach Joe Fuca, a former executive at DocuSign and basketball architect intent on building more than a winning season.

"I kept going," he said. "Don't stop what's working."

Ontario Christian opened the season ranked No. 1 in the country and Griffin is one reason why. The 5-foot-11 forward was named 2024-25 MaxPreps national freshman of the year after helping the Knights go 30-2 and knock off Etiwanda 65-63 to win the Southern Section Open Division crown before losing to the Eagles 67-62 in the Open Division regional finals. Griffin had 29 points and 11 rebounds in the first game and added 16 points and 10 rebounds in the rematch last March.

Sierra Canyon, ranked No. 1 in high school basketball in the Southland, traveled to Springfield College on Saturday for the Hoophall Classic and came away with a 75-58 win over Miami Columbus. Brandon McCoy earned game MVP honors by scoring 24 points and collecting 10 rebounds. Maxi Adams also had 24 points. Sierra Canyon (18-1) has an even bigger test coming on Wednesday in Mission League play when it faces defending champion Harvard-Westlake (21-2) in a home game that should be sold out quickly.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Ashley Saban scored 22 points against The King's Academy, 25 against Lynbrook and 23 in a win over Del Mar as Leigh went 3-0 last week. Across the three games, Saban averaged more than 23 points, three steals and three assists per game. This article is only available to subscribers Offer valid for non-subscribers only

There was no sugarcoating how disappointed Brentwood players and coaches felt last week in suffering a 16-point drubbing by Crossroads in their Gold Coast League opener. Adding to that, the player inflicting the most damage was former Brentwood standout Shalen Sheppard. "I was mad," Brentwood center Ethan Hill said. So Tuesday's road game at Windward would reveal if the Eagles had learned some lessons. And they did, getting a bounce back 68-60 win.

Inglewood is 18-5 and 4-0 in the Ocean League. The Sentinels will be a Division 1 playoff team. Crowe is 17 years old and still beating up on players who were held back a grade or two. He made seven threes and got his share of assists to 6-foot-7 junior David Conerly, who scored 20 points. Crowe has scored more than 4,000 points in his career.

Junior guard Zaire Rasshan of Damien knows football. His father, Osaar, was a backup quarterback at UCLA from 2005-09. Rasshan played quarterback his freshman season at Damien until deciding basketball was his No. 1 sport. So when Rasshan looked up at the scoreboard Thursday night at Etiwanda in the first quarter and saw the Spartans up 24-0, he had to think football.

With a week to go before opening the Trinity League with a showdown against St. John Bosco at home, Santa Margarita continued its preparation Friday night, defeating defending state Open Division champion Eastvale Roosevelt 65-49 at JSerra. The Eagles are 18-2 and have one final tuneup Saturday against Fairfax at St. Francis before facing the Braves on Jan. 9. Santa Margarita almost lost a big lead in the second half before prevailing. The Eagles led 16-2 to start the game.

The Celts (11-4) advanced to the semifinals of the toughest division of the Classic at Damien with a 70-67 victory over Northern California power Richmond Salesian on Saturday. Carter Barnes finished with 16 points and five assists. Jasiah Williams had 15 points. And, in a big development for the Celts, 6-foot-10 transfer student Rodney Mukendi, who became eligible on Friday, had nine points and eight rebounds in 13 minutes as he continues to gain playing time and makes the transition to blending in.

Sometimes it can be difficult when a high school coach also has his son on the team, but then there are those unforgettable moments that make every second spent together magical. Such a moment happened on Friday night for Oak Park basketball coach Aaron Shaw and his son, sophomore guard Grant Shaw. Grant made a three-pointer from beyond the top of the key as the buzzer sounded to give host Oak Park a 54-51 win over rival Agoura.

Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles won the Southern Section academic award for its boys' basketball team for 2024-2025. With fewer than 800 students, Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles wants everyone to know that its boys' basketball team for the 2024-25 season was No. 1 among more than 580 schools in the Southern Section in receiving the academic award for highest team grade-point average and also was named CIF statewide academic team champion.

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images) In a high school basketball season that has seen a number of promising freshman guards step forward to make major contributions in the opening month of the season, Major Williams of Edison might have turned in the best performance yet. He tied a school record with 11 threes and finished with 39 points in Edison's 96-82 victory over Long Beach Jordan on Tuesday night.

Palisades, hoping to be a City Section basketball title contender, unveiled two 6-foot-5 twins from Detroit, EJ and OJ Popoola, on Monday night, but there was no stopping Windward shooting threes in its home gym. The Wildcats made 14 threes and received a terrific performance from 6-6 junior Davey Harris in an 80-60 victory. Harris, who said he was "80%" several weeks ago in Windward's season opener after recovering from a knee injury that sidelined him for two seasons, now says he's "85 to 90%." If that's true, wait until he's 100% because he finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

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