High school basketball championships: Thursday’s lineup

High school basketball championships

THURSDAY

Boys, City Section

Small schools

Los Angeles View Park (15-16) vs. Los Angeles CES (11-18), 8 p.m. at Roybal High — It’s the fourth year of the small schools championship, and these schools have played every year. LACES won last season, View Park the previous two. LACES relies on senior guard John Moore, who is averaging 15 points. Sophomore guard Brendyn Taylor has scored 37, 28 and 24 points in the playoffs for View Park, which also has center Joe Fiddmont and guard Sheldon Wright.

Boys, Southern Section

Division 6AA

L.A. Ribet Academy (19-11) vs. Irvine Tarbut V’Torah (23-3), 6:15 p.m. at Colony High — Top-seeded Ribet has cruised into the final. The Fighting Frogs have a size advantage with 6-foot-4 Jon Conley and 6-8 Gregory Sequele. Tarbut V’Torah, a Jewish school, is making its second consecutive championship-game appearance and is led by 6-2 guard Eric Avdee, who averages 20.5 points.

Division 5AA

L.A. Windward (23-7) vs. La Verne Lutheran (22-8), 8:15 p.m. at Colony — For small schools, these teams have lots of college prospects and have played demanding schedules. Windward has junior Wesley Saunders, a key player from last year’s state Division V championship team. Lutheran has 6-8 sophomore Grant Jerrett.

Girls, City Section

Small schools

L.A. View Park (27-5) vs. LACES (28-5), 6 p.m. at Roybal — Both teams are battle-tested and have raked in wins against strong teams. View Park junior guard Danielle Pruitt averages 16 points a game and LACES junior point guard Ea Shoushtari averages 18 points.

Girls, Southern Section

Division 5A

Long Beach St. Anthony (21-9) vs. Van Nuys Montclair Prep (22-6), 4:30 p.m. at Santa Ana Mater Dei High — Last year these teams met in a quarterfinal, and Montclair Prep won by 38 points. Top-seeded St. Anthony hopes 6-foot-3 freshman center Kendall Cooper, who averages 11 points a game, will make the difference this time around.

Division 6AA

Playa del Rey St. Bernard (18-14) vs. Granada Hills Hillcrest Christian (17-8), 4:15 p.m. at Ontario Colony High — St. Bernard has played some tough teams, including Temecula Great Oak and Torrance Bishop Montgomery. Hillcrest Christian is led by senior guard Brittany Espinoza, who averages nine points.

Division 3A

Santa Margarita (23-6) vs. Pasadena Muir (21-7), Thursday, 6:30 p.m. at Santa Ana Mater Dei — Muir needs to find an answer for Santa Margarita’s phenomenal senior guard Melissa Zornig, who’s averaging 24 points. The Mustangs are making their first Southern Section final appearance since 2004, and have a very balanced team with lots of contributors.

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FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Muir hadn’t played in the finals since 2005.

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Division 1A

Fontana Summit (25-5) vs. Santa Monica (25-6), 8:30 p.m. at Santa Ana Mater Dei — These teams met on Dec. 2, and Summit won, 40-39. But Santa Monica’s talented junior transfers from Arizona, Moriah Faulk and Bianka Balthazar, have been declared eligible and will be playing this time around.

— Eric Sondheimer and Melissa Rohlin