Orange Empire Conference starts today
One of the toughest conferences in the state of California opens up conference action later today as the Orange Empire Conference starts up action. The nine team conference will be one of the first conferences to start play as eight teams will be in action tonight. In the 2019-2020 season, Riverside and Santiago Canyon shared the 2019-2020 conference championship as both teams went 14-2 in Orange Empire Conference play.
This season, as the non conference schedule action has ended, six of the nine teams have played above .500 basketball and it looks to be a very intriguing race. 2nd ranked Fullerton appears to be the favorites as the Hornets won eight straight games to start the season before losing to Los Angeles Southwest last week at home at the Fullerton Tournament. Fullerton has non conference wins over San Diego, Cerro Coso, West Los Angeles and Citrus and will open up on the road against Santa Ana tonight. The Hornets have shown that they are a legit state championship contending team.
Santiago Canyon is another team that will look to make some noise as the Hawks have flown under the radar all season long. The Hawks have started the season winning 10 of 11 and come into conference action on a seven game winning streak. Santiago Canyon has not played the schedule that Fullerton has but the Hawks have road wins against Citrus and Los Angeles Harbor. Santiago Canyon made the elite eight in the 2019-2020 season and the Hawks will be one of the teams that will challenge Fullerton at a shot for the conference championship. The Hawks will face Orange Coast on the road to start conference action in first game action.
10th ranked Irvine Valley comes into conference play on a six game winning streak. The Lasers started the year off 1-3 and have played solid defense throughout non conference action. Two of the three losses Irvine Valley has suffered have come against ranked teams (Ventura and San Diego Miramar). The only question mark has been about scoring enough points at the offensive end. The Lasers will have the day off and get conference play started on Friday on the road against Fullerton.
Riverside is another team that has had a solid preseason as the Tigers come into conference playing good basketball. Last week, the Tigers beat Copper Mountain, Cerritos and edged East Los Angeles at home after losing their previous two games. Riverside could be a dark horse that could complicate things as the Tigers have shown they are capable of beating top tier competition. The Tigers will open up conference action tonight on the road against Golden West.
Cypress has had an up a solid non conference part of their season. The Chargers come into conference play winning five of their last six games. Cypress has two losses by one point and have picked up a huge road victory over a solid Canyons team in their last outing. Cypress is a team that could make the post season and complicate things in the standings if they put together a full 40 minutes.
Saddleback is the last team that has played basketball above .500 and come into conference action winners of four of their last five games. The Bobcats are 7-4, but two of those losses have come against teams that are ranked within our Signal The Light Basketball rankings. Saddleback will travel to Cypress and face the Chargers in what could be a telling story on which of those two teams has an edge on making the post season based upon head to head competition.
Golden West, Orange Coast and Santa Ana will look to stay competitive as all three teams are below .500.
Signaling a Light
FAVORITE: Fullerton (10-1)
TEAM IN THE MIX: Santiago Canyon (10-1)
OUR DARK HORSE: Riverside (7-4)
POSSIBLE PLAYOFF TEAMS: Fullerton (10-1), Santiago Canyon (10-1), Irvine Valley (7-3), Cypress (8-4), Saddleback (7-4) and Riverside (7-4)
STLB PROJECTED PLAYER OF YEAR: “6-9” (SO) Chazz Hutchison (Fullerton)
STLB PLAYER WATCH: “6-7” (SO) Ronnie Stapp (Fullerton), “6-6” (SO) Gaven Ramirez (Fullerton), “6-2
(FR) Kobe Newton (Fullerton), “6-5” (SO) David Agba (Santiago Canyon), “6-5” (SO) Preston Sims (Santiago Canyon), “6-3” (FR) Aaron Wadman (Santiago Canyon), “6-2” (FR) Erik Howlin (Santiago Canyon), “6-4” (SO) Zekiah Lovett (Riverside), “6-3 (SO) Edwyn Collins (Riverside), “6-8” (SO) Robert Ayala (Riverside), “6-4” (SO) Luc Krystkowiak (Irvine Valley), “6-4” (SO) Aaron Strings (Irvine Valley), “6-3” (SO) Atiba Taylor (Saddleback), “6-0” (FR) Nick Bowden (Saddleback), “6-1” (FR) Ramiah Adedigba (Cypress), “6-5” (SO) Eric Watson (Golden West), “6-1” (FR) Ian Hietala (Santa Ana), “5-9” (FR) Jydon Hall (Orange Coast), “6-1” (FR) Sean Newman (Fullerton)
