Boys’ basketball: About last night

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It’s Day 2 of the Southern California regionals. Do you know where your lower-seeded team is?

Home for the season, most likely. Among the eight first-round matchups Monday night, there was only one upset, and it was a mild one: 10th-seeded Oceanside El Camino defeated seventh-seeded Etiwanda, 63-60. Thrilling stuff.

Now, I’m all for inclusion, but this 16-team bracket seems a little too much. It gave us scintillating matchups such as Mater Dei’s 33-point nail-biter against Chino Hills, Westchester’s 32-point close shave against Fresno Central and Fairfax’s 21-point thriller against Fresno Edison.

The CIF should have skipped the appetizers and gone straight to tonight’s main courses. We’re talking Fairfax at Mater Dei, where there will be three McDonald’s All-Americans on the floor, and defending state finalist Dominguez at Taft. Tesoro at King and El Camino at Westchester aren’t bad either, though double-digit victories for the host teams wouldn’t be surprising.

It just goes to show you that when it comes to playoff basketball, less can be more.

--Ben Bolch