Foothill League rivals meeting up in Oak Park final

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Instead of making what would be about about a 10-minute tour through the Buckweed Fire burn zone to play a basketball game, Foothill League rivals Saugus and Canyon will have to make the hour-long trek out to Ventura County to play each other in the Oak Park boys’ basketball tournament final at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

It’s the kind of journey I’m sure both teams will be regretting, especially since its bad prep basketball karma to play a league opponent in an early-season tournament.

‘I never would have signed up for this tournament if I had known Saugus would be playing in it,’ Canyon Coach Chad Phillips said. ‘Saugus is a loaded team from top to bottom. They’re really talented and having to play them twice is enough.’

But what about the Cowboys? They’re off to a 7-2 start and a lot of that has to do with the play of their big three -- also known as Cody Anderson, Mark Lewis and Mike Edwards.

The 6-foot-9 Anderson is averaging a healthy 19.1 ppg and 9.1 rpg and Lewis is averaging more than 17 ppg. Plus, Lewis put up a gutsy 27-point performance in the Cowboys’ 66-51 pool play victory over Calabasas on Thursday night even though he sat out Wednesday’s game against Royal because of a bruised thigh.

So Canyon might be the underdog against the still undefeated Centurions, but don’t be surprised if the Cowboys shoot an early warning shot across the Foothill League bow.

Maybe somebody from Hart and Valencia should be making the trek out to Oak Park, too.

-- Austin Knoblauch