Santa Clarita Sports Report, February 15, 2017. This is your place for Santa Clarita’s 2017 Foothill League spring sports. Find all the latest news and updates on your hometown schools here as they compete in the Foothill League, Heritage League, Western State Conference and GSAC.

It’s CIF-SS high school playoff basketball time!

Santa Clarita High School Boys Playoff Basketball

CIF-Southern Section boys playoff basketball tips off tonight with First Round action, and four Foothill League teams compete across four divisions. Tip-off for each matchup is at 7:00 pm.

Division 1AA

Village Christian (15-11) vs Hart (18-8)

All-SCV player Whitten Dominguez leads the best team in Santa Clarita from start-to-finish this season against a familiar foe, the Village Christian Crusaders.

Village Christian came to Hart January 3rd and left with a convincing 71-62 win, so the Crusaders won’t be bothered by a hostile Round 1 environment. The Indians must be at their best, and while there are no moral victories this time of year, they gained a lot of confidence from coming back from down 16 points jn the second half at Valencia last Friday to fall just short.

Tonight they seek revenge against the Crusaders.

Division 1A

West Ranch (14-11) vs Harvard-Westlake (16-11)

The Wildcats have several players who’ve played a ton of basketball for the program, including a pair of All-SCV  players in captain Chris Kodama and sharpshooting junior Austin Galuppo. Galuppo is a streaky scorer and if he gets hot he can shoot a team out of the gym.

Harvard-Westlake is a tested, albeit team coming from the Mission League competing against the likes of Alemany, Loyola, Chaminade and others. The Wolverines leading scoreres are a sophomore and a freshman, and the Wildcats will be extremely tested by their size in the paint.

West Ranch is 2-5 on the road this season, and as the lone Foothill League team away tonight, the Cats will have the toughest test of the group.

Division 2AA

Upland (16-11) vs Valencia (15-11)

The Vikings finished the regular season as the hottest team in the Foothill League with four straight wins vaulting them to a share of the league championship, and they’re only getting better. Led by the inside-out game of sophomore Jayden Trower and junior guard Dexter Akanno, adding in the leadership of senior Kyler Motoyasu and you have a team that can surprise people in the tournament.

The Upland Highlanders are a surprise at-large team in the 2AA tournament, finishing 2-8 in baseline league (eight straight losses at one point), the same league where defending national champion Chino Hills hails.

Both teams come in playing their best basketball and it should be a hotly-contested game.

Division 2A

Mark Keppel (15-12) vs 10 Saugus (17-9)

Saugus was rewarded with a strong non-league season and third-place finish in the Foothill League with a nice spot in the 2A bracket and a home game in Round 1. Senior standout Zach Phipps leads the Centurions and was arguably the best pure scorer in a league filled with good ones. Anthony McIntyre is the great complement to Phipps, in that he does a little bit of everything (rebound, defense) for a team that doesn’t have a great deal of size.

While Saugus has been shaky at home of late, they look poised to move on to the second round with a big win Wednesday night.

COC Baseball

Canyons baseball turned things around in a hurry. Losers of three straight to start the season, the Cougars have been hot ever since with four wins in a row after defeating East LA, 5-3.

Lead-off hitter Cole Kleszcz crushed a home run and added a double to improve his batting average to .400 on the season.

Wednesday afternoon the Cougars travel to Allan Hancock, the team they beat to start the streak, at 2:00 pm.

TMU Baseball

The Mustangs fell, 5-4 at home to Corban Tuesday, dropping their record to 5-8 before their weekend GSAC series against Vanguard starting Thursday.

Los Angeles Lakers

DeMarcus Cousins did DeMarcus Cousins things Tuesday, playing like the best player on the floor and dropping 40 points at Staples Center to edge the Lakers 97-96.

No rest for the weary, as the Lakers are in Phoenix tonight for the second of a back-to-back. Both teams seem to be trying to “lose competitively” with lottery picks on the mind, so tonight should be interesting to say the least.

KHTS AM-1220 is your place for the 2016/17 winter sports season and the Santa Clarita sports report. If you have any news and notes about our teams to share please send them to [email protected] and follow us @KHTSSports on Twitter.