Corona Centennial defeats Damien in Open Division basketball playoff game

Kylan Boswell was back in the lineup Monday night for Corona Centennial after spending the last week in Colorado Springs trying out for USA basketball representatives.

Boswell provided a lift with 13 points in Centennial’s 82-69 victory over Damien in a Southern Section Open Division Pool B playoff game at Centennial. Aaron McBride had 19 points, and Donovan Dent added 17. Malik Thomas scored 32 points and RJ Smith had 20 for Damien (27-3).

The Huskies (19-2) could have used Boswell on Friday night in a 65-60 loss to Harvard-Westlake.

Centennial and Damien are now 1-1 with one game to play. Harvard-Westlake is 1-0 going into a road game Tuesday against Mater Dei (0-1). It’s still likely to come down to Harvard-Westlake at Damien on Friday night to decide the pool champion.

If there’s a two-way tie, head-to-head result is the tiebreaker. If there’s a three-way tie, it comes down to lowest combined seed points from games the team won, and Harvard-Westlake has the edge with the win over No. 2 Centennial.

Here’s the link to Tuesday’s Southern Section boys’ basketball pairings.

Here’s the link to Southern Section girls’ basketball pairings.