High School

Harvard-Westlake gets 7th straight Mission League title, peace of mind ahead of playoff reveal

The No. 1 boys basketball team in California will get to rest easy heading into the weekend, but many coaches will have a hard time sleeping while awaiting their playoff fate.

Tarek Fattal

Harvard-Westlake's Nik Khamenia shoots a free throw in a game against St. Francis at the Intuit Dome on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025.
Harvard-Westlake's Nik Khamenia shoots a free throw in a game against St. Francis at the Intuit Dome on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. / Greg Fiore

STUDIO CITY, CALIFORNIA — The computer rankings that are used to determine the CIF Southern Section high school basketball playoffs are making a lot of coaches nervous. Every Monday, the rankings are updated with new data (wins/losses) that move teams up and down.

In this week’s update, Alemany moved up 19 spots. St. Pius jumped up 15 spots. Cypress 18. Loyola 27. On the flip side, Culver City dropped 31 spots. Oaks Christian fell 13 spots. La Mirada dropped three spaces, from No. 5 to No. 8, which puts the Matadores on the bubble for a potential Open Division playoff berth pending on how many teams the section takes.

There's really no predicting where a team will jump or drop, especially in year one of this new system.

"I think any time you change anything, it's really hard. And this is a new change for our entire system, right?," Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo said. "It's a change that's affecting good teams that aren't elite teams, but probably deserve a playoff berth. I feel for those teams because that affects your program, that affects your team, but this is what was voted on."

Rebibo's coaching peers, especially ones in the Mission League like St. Francis, Chaminade, Alemany and Loyola are at risk of missing the playoffs as at-large teams.

"I sympathize with seniors and coaches who are trying to run programs and do the best they can ... I do know that it hurts the good leagues, and that's unfortunate," Rebibo added.

More movement is coming after seeing the results in the final two days of the regular season. Mira Costa (No. 13) beat No. 5 Redondo Union, 69-68, and No. 9 Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks beat No. 6 Sierra Canyon, 83-72, Tuesday night to provide more evidence of great parity at the top.

More of that parity came Wednesday night as No. 1 Harvard-Westlake edged No. 9 Notre Dame 67-64 in the Mission League tournament final to crown the Wolverines the league champion for a seventh straight season.

Duke commit Nik Khamenia had 24 points and Joe Sterling added 22 in the victory.

Tyran Stokes, who played the second half with four fouls, sparked a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 57-57 with 5:14 left. Stokes later fouled out on an offensive foul with 1:01 left and his Knights trailing 63-62.

Notre Dame's NaVorro Bowman had a good look from downtown with 17 seconds remaining but it was off the mark. Bowman was able to retrieve his own rebound, but was called for traveling. Harvard-Westlake (27-1) made free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

Stokes finished with 13 points, five rebounds and five assist. Zach White had 18 for the Knights (22-6), who were without Rutgers commit Lino Mark.

Time and time again, Harvard-Westlake — the two-time defending CIF State Open Division champion — continues to deliver in close games.

"Discipline, a high level of understanding of what you are and what you do really well, and executing that to the highest level," said Rebibo when talking about how his teams seem to always close out big games. "We have guys step up in big moments and we have two sophomores out there to end the game. It's a testament to our players."

The CIF Southern Section will announce the playoff pairings on Saturday at noon.

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Tarek Fattal, SBLive Sports
TAREK FATTAL

Tarek Fattal has been covering high school sports since 2015 in Southern California and primarily in Los Angeles, covering notable athletes such as Bronny James, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alyssa Thompson. He was with the LA Daily News for eight years, which included being the beat reporter for the UCLA men's basketball team. Tarek can be seen on TV regularly on CBS/KCAL as a sports analyst with Jim Hill.

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