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Long Beach Poly

TONIGHT: Long Beach Poly Visits Bosco In State Playoffs

Fans of great guard play won’t find a better ticket Saturday night than Long Beach Poly traveling to St. John Bosco in the second round of the CIF State Division 1 playoffs Saturday evening at 6 p.m.

The game is expected to sell out so fans who haven’t gotten a ticket yet are encouraged to arrive early. Pricing is $9 for general admission and $5 for children, high school students with ID, and seniors.

“It should be a really fun game, we’re excited about it,” said Poly coach Shelton Diggs after a morning practice on Thursday.

Poly (23-8) is the No. 9 seed in the Division 1 SoCal bracket and is coming off a 69-53 road win at No. 8 El Camino Real. Bosco (23-7) is the top seed and had a bye in the first round as a result.

“We would rather have played a game,” said Braves coach Matt Dunn at Poly’s ECR roadie on Wednesday. He also downplayed the seeding difference. “They’re a really good team.”

Both teams have talented guards, with Poly led by five of them, who’ve done more than 95% of their scoring these playoffs: Darryl Polk, Jesse Galloway, Justin Rene, Malik Salahuddin, and Giordan Williams. With senior Alpha Okoli sidelined for the Braves, their top scorer is Josh Adoh (#5) who is averaging over 15 points per game. A major matchup to watch is Bosco’s Jonathan Salazar (#12), a 6’6” big that Poly will have to figure out an answer for.

The winner will play Tuesday in the SoCal semifinals against the winner of Rancho Christian and Rancho Verde.

Mike Guardabascio
An LBC native, Mike Guardabascio has been covering Long Beach sports professionally for 13 years, with his work published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards for his writing as well as the CIF Southern Section’s Champion For Character Award, and is the author of three books about Long Beach history.
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