CIF State basketball playoffs: Rolling Hills Prep stuns JSerra; Notre Dame sends a message (2/27/2024)

No. 15 Rolling Hills Prep took down No. 2 JSerra on the road Tuesday night in the most shocking result of the opening round

Rolling Hills Prep boys basketball coach Harvey Kitani is California's third all-time winningest coach with more than 950 wins. He knows a thing or two about playoff basketball after winning four LA City Section titles at Fairfax and four CIF Southern Section titles with the Huskies.

Rolling Hills Prep fell short to St. Anthony in the Division 2AA sectional final over the weekend before being seeded No. 15 in the CIF State Division I playoffs on Sunday.

The draw: No. 2 JSerra, an Open Division team.

Clearly, that didn't matter Tuesday night.

Rolling Hills Prep went on the road to stun JSerra 41-39 in a clinical defensive performance to advance to the next round of the CIF State Division I SoCal regional playoffs to take on Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks.

Mateo Trujillo led the Huskies with 12 points and freshman center Nick Welch Jr. had 11.

• CIF State Division I bracket

Notre Dame defeated Torrey Pines 89-47 in what was clearly a warning shot to anyone who's paying attention. Mercy Miller notched a triple-double with 40 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

The Knights were snubbed from the Open Division playoffs then went on to win the Division 1 title Saturday night over Windward. On Sunday, Notre Dame was placed as the No. 7 seed in the CIF State Division I SoCal regional playoffs.

Notre Dame will host Rolling Hills Prep on Thursday.

Harvey Kitani talks Kevin Durant, McDonald's All-American game on CIF Southern Section Sitdown

SOUTHERN VS. SAN DIEGO

There were a lot of intersectional games between Southern Section and San Diego Section teams in the opening round. With the Notre Dame victory, Southern Section went 5-0 Tuesday night.

Damien 69, St. Augustine 44: Eli Gardner led the Spartans with 19 points.

Redondo Union 84, Montgomery 69: SJ Madison led Redondo with 25 points and Devin Ringer added 19.

Corona Centennial 77, Mission Hills 58: Carter Bryant scored 22 points and Isaiah Rodgers had 16 in the win.

Windward 74, La Jolla Country Day 59: JJ Harris led Windward with 20 points.

2024 CIF State playoff: Scores, matchups, game times

OTHER NOTABLE SCORES

Heritage Christian 72, LACES 41: Tae Simmons had 25 points to lead the Warriors into the next round in Division II.

Alemany 57, Chula Vista Olympian 46: Michael Lindsay led the Warriors with 20 points in Division III.

King/Drew 55, Marina 45: The Open Division City champs move on in the Division II playoffs.

Chatsworth 68, Dunn 47: Alijah Arenas led the Chancellors with 22 points in the Division IV playoffs.

ALL BOYS BASKETBALL BRACKETS

(click link and slide left to see southern side of bracket on mobile)

• OPEN DIVISION (starts Wednesday)
• DIVISION I
• DIVISION II
• DIVISION III
• DIVISION IV
• DIVISION V