first round

When Jeff Bryant was playing high school basketball at Sylmar, the top teams in the City Section were annually among the best in California.

“The City dominated back in the day,” Bryant, now the head coach at Palisades, said Tuesday before Southern California Regional Division II boys’ basketball final. His Dolphins lost a heartbreaker, 59-57 at Bakersfield Christian, falling a win short of a trip to Sacramento for the state finals.

Eleven days earlier Palisades captured the City Open Division crown, going undefeated against section opponents, and with 10 players — including all five starters — returning next season, Bryant not only has his sights set on a repeat, he wants to reverse a 15-year trend during which City teams have struggled to compete at the highest level.

City boys teams won the state’s top division five times in six years from 1993-98 and seven times in nine years from 2002-10. However, since the Open Division debuted in 2013 only two City teams have advanced to the regional finals in that division — Westchester in 2014 and Fairfax in 2015 — and the last time a City team made the Open bracket was five years ago when Birmingham lost in the first round.

Bryant, who graduated in 2006, will be rooting for his former coach on Friday when his alma mater plays for the Division V state championship under the guidance of Bort Escoto, who piloted the Spartans to the City Division II title on the same night Palisades won the Open Division. Sylmar was dropped down to Division V for regionals and ran the table.

Birmingham was upset by Fairfax in the opening round of the City Open Division playoffs Feb. 11 and dropped to Division III for the regional tournament. The Patriots have since reeled off four convincing victories and will also play for a state title Friday afternoon.

Birmingham and Sylmar are the latest City teams to benefit from regional playoff expansion in which teams are placed several divisions lower from where they played in their section. Chatsworth advanced to the Division II state final last winter after losing in the City Open Division final and reached the Division IV state final after its City Open semifinal loss two years ago. Like Sylmar this season, Verdugo Hills was the City Division II champion in 2024 and went on to play for the Division V state title.

On the girls’ side, no City squad has won an Open Division state playoff game. Five teams from the section have received berths in the highest division over the last 14 years, but none since Fairfax in 2018. Narbonne is the last City team to conquer the state’s top division, claiming back-to-back Division I titles in 2000 and 2001, long before the Open debuted.

Like the boys, City girls’ teams fare well when dropped to lower divisions.

Palisades, which fell in the first round in the City Open Division, plays for the state Division IV crown Saturday while City Open Division champion Westchester was seeded 14th in Division I for regionals and lost in the first round. Granada Hills went to the Division III state finals two years ago after losing in the first round of the City’s Open Division.

Before taking the helm at Palisades, Bryant guided West Ranch of the Southern Section into the Open Division regional playoffs in 2023. Now he aims to do the same at a school in the section he once played in.

The early rounds of the BNP Paribas Open began Wednesday, with top seeds slated to start play Friday during the 12-day ATP and WTPA Master 1000 tournament.

A busy stretch of the tennis season reaches another gear at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the second-largest outdoor tennis stadium in the world.

While many consider it the “fifth Grand Slam” because of its elite player field, amenities and equal prize money for men and women, professionals acknowledge the tournament is part of a stressful stretch on the tennis calendar.

Indian Wells is followed by the Miami Open, another two-week Master 1000 tournament. The tour stops are known as the “Sunshine Double.”

Some players made the short trip from Indian Wells to Las Vegas this past weekend to participate in the MGM Grand Slam, an exhibition designed to help players ramp up for back-to-back tournaments.

American Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot–11 pro, said managing fatigue after a series of tournaments before hitting Indian Wells has altered his practice and play in exhibition matches, including a loss to 19-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca in Las Vegas.

“Normally in any kind of competition, you get excited and play with a pressure point … but you don’t feel this when you are practicing,” Opelka said.

“I was trying to feel like this a few days ago while practicing with … [Tommy Paul,] but instead we got tired and hungry. … That usually doesn’t happen. We just decided to stop and go to eat somewhere.”

Paul said despite the decision to cut practice short, he feels fresh for the upcoming events.

“I started the year pretty well and for Americans, we are excited for the Sunshine Double,” Paul said.

Casper Rudd lost to Opelka during the first round of the Las Vegas exhibition. The Norwegian also lost a week ago during the first round of the Acapulco Open, falling to Chinese qualifier Yibing Wu in straight sets.

Rudd said he felt “extremely tired” after the Australian Open in January.

Rancho Palo Verdes resident Taylor Fritz, ranked No. 7 in the world, said the best way to prepare for the grueling tour schedule is “putting [in] the time, work and repetition.”

“… Be there, be focused on the quality that you are doing,” said Fritz, a 28-year-old who won the Indian Wells title in 2022.

While some players are guarding against burnout, others struggled to even reach California. Some players who live in Dubai, including Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, have to contend with closed airspace triggered by the U.S. and Israel bombing Iran.

The ATP announced Wednesday that, “the vast majority of players who were in Dubai have successfully departed today on selected flights.”

HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL PLAYOFFS
TUESDAY’S FIRST ROUND RESULTS

BOYS
DIVISION I
#1 Mater Dei 2, #8 Santa Monica 0
#4 El Camino Real 1, #5 Placentia Valencia 0
#3 Del Norte 4, #6 JSerra 1
#2 Orange Lutheran 3, #7 St. Augustine 2

DIVISION II
#8 Sultana 3, #1 Torrey Pines 2
#4 San Pascual 4, #5 Anaheim Canyon 0
#3 Fontana 4, #6 Hilltop 1
#2 Mira Monte 0, #7 Birmingham 0 (Mira Monte wins 4-1 in shootout)

DIVISION III
#1 Bishop Amat 1, #8 Godinez 0
#4 Palisades 1, #5 Bakersfield Liberty 1 (Palisades wins 3-2 in shootout)
#6 Los Alamitos d. #3 Bonita Vista, forfeit
#7 Mt. Carmel 2, #2 Newport Harbor 1

DIVISION IV
#1 Irvine University 4, #8 Animo Leadership 2
#5 Chatsworth 4, #4 Bakersfield 1
#6 Santa Ana Valley 3, #3 La Jolla 1
#2 Granite Hills 2, #7 Esperanza 0

DIVISION V
#1 Ontario Christian 2, #8 LA Roosevelt 0
#5 Kern County Taft 2, #4 North Hollywood 1
#3 Garfield 1, #6 Orange County Pacifica Christian 1 (Garfield wins 5-4 in shootout)
#7 San Diego Lincoln 3, #2 Pasadena Poly 1

GIRLS

DIVISION I
#1 Santa Margarita 2, #8 Eastvale Roosevelt 2 (SM wins 3-2 in shootout)
#4 Cleveland 2, #5 Redondo Union 0
#6 Oaks Christian 1, #3 Mt. Carmel 0
#2 Mater Dei 5, #7 North County San Marcos 0

DIVISION II
#8 Westview 1, #1 Newport Harbor 0
#5 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 3, #4 Carlsbad 0
#3 Garces Memorial 1, #6 Granada Hills 0
#2 Westlake 1, #7 La Costa Canyon 0

DIVISION III
#1 Del Norte 4, #8 Palisades 3
#4 Quartz Hill 3, #5 El Diamante 0
#3 Ayala 7, #6 Crescenta Valley 2
#2 Millikan 7, #7 Tulare Western 0

DIVISION IV
#8 Segerstrom 1, #1 Birmingham 1 (Segerstrom wins 4-2 in shootout)
#5 Coachella Valley 3, #4 Ramona 2
#3 San Jacinto 1, #6 Mission Vista 0
#7 Del Sol 0, #2 Immaculate Heart 0 (Del Sol wins 4-3 in shootout)

DIVISION V
#8 Coastal Academy 1, #1 Ocean View 0
#5 Bravo 2, #4 Webb 1
#3 Delano Kennedy 2, #6 Marquez 2 (Kennedy wins in shootout)
#2 Santa Monica Pacifica Christian 4, #7 Sun Valley Poly 3

Note: Semifinals 1 p.m. or 5 p.m. Thursday at higher seeds; Finals 1 p.m. or 5 p.m. Saturday at host sites; State Championships March 13-14 at Matomas High in Sacramento (times TBA).