Roosevelt boys basketball team is No. 2 seed for expanded 10-team Open Division – San Bernardino Sun

The CIF Southern Section’s boys basketball Open Division playoffs have always been a gauntlet.

The journey will be even tougher this season as the Open Division has been expanded to include 10 teams, two more than previous years.

The 10 teams selected have been placed in two pools based on their final in-season rankings. There will be five rounds of pool play, with teams playing four games and having one bye. The teams that finish atop each of the two pools will play for the Open Division championship later this month.

Roosevelt is the No. 2 seed and will have home-court advantage for each of its pool-play games. The Mustangs will host games against Heritage Christian (Wednesday), Redondo (Feb. 18), Sierra Canyon (Feb. 21) and St. John Bosco (Feb. 25). Roosevelt’s bye is in the second round (Friday).

Roosevelt, last year’s Open Division runner-up, already owns victories this season over Redondo (78-74) and St. John Bosco (56-55 in overtime).

Divisions 1-5A are played in a single-elimination format with all first-round games scheduled for Wednesday.

Four Inland teams were placed in the Division 1 bracket based on their final rankings.

Rancho Cucamonga is the No. 4 seed and opens at home against. Corona del Mar. The other Division 1 openers involving Inland teams are St. Paul at Etiwanda, Vista Murrieta at Los Alamitos and Damien at Anaheim Canyon.

Seven other Inland boys basketball teams received a top-four seeding in their respective playoff divisions.

Chino Hills is the No. 2 seed in the Division 2AA bracket and hosts Yorba Linda in a first-round game.

Linfield Christian is the No. 1 seed in Division 3AA and opens at home against Sunny Hills.

Summit is the top seed in the Division 3A bracket and hosts Ambassador Christian in a first-round game. Aquinas is seeded No. 4 in Division 3A and opens at home against Pasadena Poly.

Elsinore is the No. 1 seed in Division 4AA and hosts Newbury Park Adventist.

Santa Rosa Academy is seeded third in Division 4A and opens at home against Valley Torah.

Sherman Indian is the No. 3 seed in the Division 5A bracket and hosts South El Monte.