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“In towns and cities... there is no more important institution than the local paper.”
Warren Buffett
By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
February 9, 2026
Half of the area’s boys basketball teams will continue their seasons as the CIF-Southern Section playoffs are upon us with first round games beginning on Feb. 11, second round games to be played on Friday and the quarterfinals on Tuesday. For the second straight season, La Mirada High is on the Open Division as the 12th seeded team while Cerritos High, Gahr High and Norwalk High earned automatic berths by finishing in the top three of their respective leagues and will be home for their first games.
OPEN DIVISION
#12 La Mirada (22-6 overall, 8-0 in the Gateway League) @ #4 Notre Dame High/Sherman Oaks (19-6 overall, 5-2 in the Mission League, tied for second place)-The goal for any top notch boys basketball program is to find a way to the Open Division and that’s where the Matadores are. Last season, La Mirada was seeded eighth out of eight teams and went 1-3, defeating JSerra High 64-58 in the last game of the season. This season, the CIF-SS expanded the Open Division to a dozen teams and for the second straight season, La Mirada will be on the road as long as it stays alive.
“It’s a big accomplishment for us to get back there to the Open Division, especially graduating what we graduated last year,” said head coach Randy Oronoz. “We have four kids playing college basketball from last year’s senior team. So, to get back to the Open Division in California, which is the hardest playoff bracket in the nation, is a testament to some of the new kids who transferred in and the returners for kind of leading the way and showing us how to get back there.”
The Matadores lost to Notre Dame 71-65 in the second of the four Open Division games last Valentine’s Day, then fell to the Knights 77-60 in this season’s opener. The teams have faced each other one other time in the past two decades with Notre Dame posting a 57-36 win on Dec. 7, 2021.
While the Matadores are glad to be in the Open Division and have won over 20 games for the fourth straight season, Oronoz questions the method and reasoning of how teams are seeded.
“We’re an Open Division team; we know we’re an Open Division team,” he said. “We got in because our number was 12, but the transparency with CIF is so unclear that…we just took it with what it is. We’re all where we wanted to be and we’re just happy to get a shot and play with the big boys.”
While the CIF-SS isn’t taking head to head results into consideration, Oronoz thought his team would be seeded as high as eighth. The Matadores went 1-3 against teams in the Open Division, defeating Crespi High 68-57 on Jan. 2. The Celts are seeded ninth and they beat Harvard-Westlake High, which is seeded seventh. Damien High, seeded 10th, lost to 11th-seeded Etiwanda High, which makes Oronoz question the process.
“They’re not taking head to head into consideration,” said Oronoz. “That’s what I don’t like about the transparency of CIF by not throwing in that ranking on Feb. 6. The problem for me is I thought we would get a home game, moving up with a 14-game winning streak regardless of who we were playing. We played some pretty good teams in January as well. We’re just happy to get in; we wished we had a home game. But hey, we’re not going to complain and we’re just going to try to do our best to get a road game.”
Another component Oronoz believes the CIF isn’t taking into consideration is the out of state games a team plays. The Matadores went 5-1 against non-California teams and 2-2 against non-Southern Section teams. One of the out of state teams the Matadores beat is the top team in Idaho, Owyhee High out of Meridian, who defeated Damien and Harvard-Westlake. Oronoz believes it would be an Open Division team in California because of those two wins.
“Something is off there; there has to be a human element [in the seeding process],” said Oronoz. “I’ve been saying that…and if [high school basketball experts] Tarek Fattal and Frank Burlison and Eric Sondheimer have us at seven or eight or whatever it is, how are we dropping back to 12? That doesn’t make sense. What I’m saying is that these home games matter. We didn’t play one home game [in last year’s playoffs] and that’s ridiculous because last year, we were always better than JSerra. We beat them, but we were always going to do better. But a computer is going to tell you that they’re better than us, so they get a home game? We’ve only lost two home games since our [renovated] gym has been open in four and a half years.”
In this season’s opener, junior Jordyn Houston made his varsity debut a memorable one, scoring a career-high 22 points on nine of 14 shooting from the field with four three-pointers while junior Gene Roebuck added 16 points.
Roebuck is the teams leading scorer, averaging nearly 22 points a game. He has reached 20 points in all but nine games with a season-high 34 points coming against Roosevelt High in the second game of the season. But the Matadores lineup is stacked with seniors Andrew Castro, Santiago Lopez, Tristan Partida, King-Riley Owens and junior Cisco Munoz joining Houston and Roebuck.
“Cisco has been special for us,” said Oronoz. “He doesn’t get a lot of the hype but in some of the games where he’s scoring in double digits, he’s also having seven to nine to 10 assists as well. He guards well; he’s an experienced guard, but we’ve had Andrew Castro playing extremely well for us, too. But the issue is who’s going to show up for us? Having that many options is great, but being able to get these guys to show up in these games is what we’ve built for.”
La Mirada will travel to fifth-seeded St. John Bosco High on Friday in the second of two pool play games in the division. If the Matadores finish first or second in Pool D, they will advance to the quarterfinals, which will be on Feb. 20. All eight teams who advance to the quarterfinals move on to the state playoffs. If they finish in last place in the pool, they will face the last place team in Pool A (Corona Del Mar High, Crespi, Sierra Canyon High) in a State Play-In game, also on Feb. 20.
DIVISION 3
La Salle High (16-12 overall, 8-4 in the Santa Fe League, third place) @ Gahr High (18-9 overall, 4-4 in the Gateway League, third place)-The Gladiators moved on to the playoffs the past four seasons but have not advanced to the second round since 2017 and have not been to the quarterfinals since playing in the Division III-AA title game in 2015.
Gahr spent the first part of the season either a game above or a game under .500 before going on a six game winning streak from Dec. 13-30. Since their league opener on Jan. 7 against Mayfair High, the Gladiators have won eight of their last 12 games, paced by seniors Kingston Nathaniel and sophomores Xavier Brown and Bryce Titus.
After an opening-season victory, the Lancers lost five straight games. Since then, they have not lost more than two in a row while going on a four-game winning streak and a trio of two-game winning streaks. Kristupas Miselis leads La Salle with a 12.8 points per game average and is the only player averaging double digits. He is also averaging just over nine rebounds per game.
The winner will play either Aquinas High or Knight High in the second round on Friday.
DIVISION 5
Adelanto High (17-11 overall, 5-3 in the Desert Sky League, second place) @ Cerritos High (17-11 overall, 9-1 in the 605 League, co-champions)-For the 19th straight season, Cerritos is in the playoffs as the kings of the 605 League the past eight seasons just capped off their fifth league title, sharing it with Pioneer High. The Dons are peaking at the right time as they enter the postseason winners of 12 of their past 13 contests with the lone setback coming on Jan. 27 against Pioneer.
Cerritos may have eight players with varsity experience, but it’s been freshman Jace Ribac who has been the leader. He posted a career-high 29 points against Kennedy High on Dec. 12 and has reached 20 points two other times and at least 10 points 18 other times. Ribac has started every game this season and with juniors Rocco Chua, Noah Edwards, Devon Hardy and Noah Lai joining him in the starting lineup, the Dons have nicely navigated a bumpy season that began with multiple injuries to over five players.
Adelanto began the season 9-6, never winning more than three games in a row, but the Saints turned their season around with a six-game winning streak from Jan. 10-22.
The winner will face either fourth-seeded Sierra Vista High or Vasquez High in the second round on Friday.
DIVISION 7
La Puente High (13-12 overall, 9-1 in the Miramonte League, co-champions) @ Norwalk High (15-12 overall, 5-5 in the Mid-Cities League, third place)-It’s been a long time coming for the Norwalk boys basketball program, but the Lancers are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 when that team shocked many by advancing to the quarterfinals. Norwalk had a 16-11 record last season, but finished tied for third place in the Mid-Cities League and there were not enough at-large positions in Division 3A
“Well, it’s been our goal, obviously every year,” said head coach Jim Webster, who is in his second season of a second stint with Norwalk. “And the only way to control your own destiny is to get in the top three [in league]. Last year we were 16-11 and we didn’t get an at-large [berth]. So, I think our focus this year was to get in the top three and it came down to the last game. I told our players that if it came down to this, this is where we would want it.”
Webster was referring to the Feb. 3 home game against Paramount High which decided third place as both teams were 4-5 in league play. The Lancers were nipped by Paramount 50-49 on Jan. 16 on the road, the middle of three straight road league contests.
“It’s not a matter of being confident,” said Webster of the second meeting with Paramount. “It’s just hoping the players can execute and stay poised. We got out to a pretty good lead; we tried to give it away a little bit here and there. But we made nine out of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter. They really came through.”
The Lancers won eight of their first 10 games of the season, then lost five of their next seven before league play. The heart and soul of the team has been senior David Zazueta, who has been held to under 10 points eight times, scoring a season-high 27 points in the season opener against La Quinta High.
But the team has received contributions from seniors Emmanuel Castellanos and Jesus Sanchez and sophomores Noah Correa and Bhavya Verma.
“Depending on what they plan to do defensively, I think it will come down to our defense, just overall,” said Webster. “If we can play solid defense like we have most of the year, and able to execute on offense just enough…hit a few shots, we should be a little more comfortable [at home] than them. But I think overall, the defense will dictate, hopefully, the game.”
La Puente began the season losing 10 of its first 12 games but has turned it on since league play began and ride into the postseason on a five-game winning streak and 10 out of the last 11 games. The only loss was to Edgewood High, 29-28, on Jan. 21. Both teams have a common opponent in Workman High, whom the Lancers defeated 56-19 on Dec. 12 and the Warriors swept in league action.
For Webster personally, he went to the playoffs seven times in the 14 seasons he was Norwalk’s head coach from the 2002-2003 season through the 2015-2026 campaign, However, those seven appearances came within eight seasons.
“Every year, it’s always hard for us,” said Webster. “So, that’s our goal; we’ve geared our schedule to try to get at least an at-large [bid]. But being in third place feels really good and the players are really excited.”
The winner will face either Arroyo High or Rowland High in the second round on Friday.