Foothills Christian, blown off the court, 40-13, in the first quarter and a 106-86 loser to Chino Hills a  couple weeks ago, will have another try at the USA Today No. 1 Huskies in the Sierra Canyon Super Showcase in Chatsworth Saturday.

The pressing piranhas of 13-0 Chino Hills, averaging  93 points a game, were champions of the recent City of Palms Tournament in Fort Meyers, Fla., where many eastern big shots competed.

Foothills (8-2) took a step back last week in the Under-Armour event at Torrey Pines.

After an impressive, 85-63 victory over St. Augustine, the Knights fell, 67-52,  to Corona Centennial, the same team Foothills defeated, 69-61, on Centennial’s home court the day before it met Chino Hills.

St. Augustine (11-2), also in the Sierra Canyon field, snapped a two-game losing streak last night, leading from opening tip to final buzzer in a 62-52 win over visiting Bellflower St. John Bosco (13-2), ranked 21st in the state by Max Preps.

Coach Mike Haupt’s Saints, 18th in California, according to Max Preps,  will play Mission Hills Bishop Alemany (9-5) Saturday.

Lincoln is host for a shootout Saturday that includes La Jolla Country Day (15-0) taking on Woodland Hills El Camino Real (5-8) and the Hornets (9-2) meeting Lynwood (9-4). Other squads also are involved.

Teams in the Union-Tribune Top 10 opened league play last night or will Friday.

First-place votes in parenthesis. Won-loss records through Monday.

Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.                                                                             NR—Not ranked.

Others receiving votes, including record: Lincoln (9-2, 12), Grossmont (12-3, 11), Vista (8-5, 1).

11 media representatives vote, including John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Jim Lindgren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Lisa Lane, San Diego Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.

New Year’s and league play await, but  holiday action continues, most notably with the Under-Armour event hosted by coach John Olive and the Torrey Pines Falcons.

Play begins Saturday with seven of the Union-Tribune Top 10 clubs competing.  Foothills Christian, St. Augustine, and Army-Navy are in the elite National Division.

Foothills, No. 1 in the latest Union-Tribune poll,  plays Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, and No. 2 St. Augustine takes on Bellevue Washington in first-round games Saturday. No. 6 Army-Navy meets Pebblebrook of Mabelton, Georgia.

No. 2 El Camino and No. 4 Cathedral will be in other major tournaments, the Wildcats in Palm Desert for the Max Preps and Cathedral near Chicago at the Proviso West event.

Brandon McCoy, the 6-foot, 11-inch Cathedral transfer from Morse, will be the featured performer in the late game against New Trier Winnetka on Saturday.  McCoy was born in the Chicago area and lived there until moving to San Diego as a sophomore.

Pairings:

Foothills Christian, No. 1 in the first Union-Tribune basketball poll, was 4-0 before being savaged by a piranha-like attack from the Chino Hills Huskies in finals of the Battle Zone Tournament at Corona Centennial Saturday night.

Final score, 106-86.

Foothills’ T.J. Leaf scored 44 points and was 21 for 27 from the field, but the Knights were swamped at the outset by  a withering, all-court press and trailed, 22-5, in  the first four minutes.

It was 40-13, at the end of the first quarter.

The El Cajon squad actually outscored the Chino Hills, 73-66, over the last three quarters, but it never really was in it, getting no closer than 18 points at 67-49.

The Huskies, aggressively rebounding at both ends of the court,  answered any attempted Foothills incursion with breakaways or some sharp three-point sniping.

Foothills Christian won its first four Battle Zone games, defeating Temecula Great Oak, 84-42, Etiwanda, 73-43, Corona Centennial, 69-61, and Temecula Rancho Christian, 96-58.

The Knights will get another chance at Chino Hills,  Max Preps‘ state No. 3-ranked team when they meet Jan. 9 in  the Sierra Canyon Super Showcase in Chatsworth.

Second-ranked Cathedral opens the season Thursday against San Francisco St. Ignatius in the Father Barry Tournament hosted by Carmichael Jesuit.

No. 3 St. Augustine is 4-0 after winning the Pasadena Rose City Classic at Maranatha Christian with a 52-50 victory over Montebello Cantwell Sacred Heart.

The Saints’ other tournament victories were 52-50 over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, 58-47 over Pomona Diamond Ranch, and 62-42 over Valencia West Ranch.

Idleness breeds contempt or a drop in the ratings.

Mission Hills has fallen from ninth to 11th in Cal-Hi Sports’ state top 25, partly because the Grizzlies drew a bye in the first round of the San Diego Section playoffs last week.

Also byed last week, Helix remained 12th.  Cathedral  and St. Augustine  are on the bubble after they, too, sat out.

Under Cal Hi’s nomenclature, there are no Open division ratings, but begin with Division I and with 15 teams rated.

Mission Hills is 10th and Helix 12th in D-I.  St. Augustine is fifth and Cathedral 12th in D-II followed by  one-the-bubble Valhalla.

Ten teams are rated in D-III-V, with Bonita Vista (III), Santa Fe Christian (IV), and La Jolla Country Day (V) on the bubble.

The San Diego Section playoffs increase in interest this week after a first round in which there were few surprises and the clearing process of washing out bad teams began.

Forty-six  teams in six divisions are still alive, with 23 games scheduled.

Helix-Madison (Open), San Marcos-Oceanside (I), and Christian-Valhalla (II) match  No. 8 seeds versus No. 1 seeds in each division but probably have the most marquee value.

Does Madison, which could contend for a state championship if it were left in its natural D-IV environment, have a shot against the fast, savvy Highlanders?

Westview (5)-at Mt. Carmel (4) promises an old-fashioned, roll-in-the-dirt, backyard brawl in D-II.  The schools are very close geographically.

Imperial (5)-Santa Fe Christian (4) has a distinct intersectional flavor in D-III.  So does Calexico Vincent Memorial (3)-Crawford (2) in D-5, with the Imperial Valley schools making the long trek over the mountains.

The Rock takes on Calvin Christian for the D-VI championship.

HERE COMES BASKETBALL

Foothills Christian is sixth and St. Augustine 17th in Cal-Hi’s preseason top 35. Torrey Pines  and Cathedral are in the “just missed” category.

Foothills, with 6-foot, 9-inch nationally recognized T.J. Leaf, was 25-7 last season.  So was St. Augustine, which returns its entire starting five.

QUICK KICKS

Fallbrook writer David Willauer reminds that Warriors under Kyle Williams were 2-9 in ’13,  6-4 in ’14, and  now are 7-4 after a  7-3 win over 5-6 Hilltop in first round of D-III…the seventh-seeded Warriors visit second-seeded Mission Bay (8-2) this week…

Lance Morton, Rich Gehring, and Sam Edwards are among former San Diego prep athletes who  recently passed away.

Morton, 81,  a founder of the Brigantine Restaurant chain, was a second team all-City Prep League  end on the 1951 Point Loma squad that finished with a 6-2 record, losing only to San Diego, 15-6, and La Jolla, 21-14, teams that tied for CPL championship.

Morton also was a standout in track and field and held the Pointers record in the shot put for several years at 51 feet, 3 1/4 inches.

Rich Gehring, 80, had bests of :15 in the 120-yard high hurdles and :20 in the 180 lows and was a double winner for Escondido in the 1953 Metropolitan League track finals.

Gehrig, also played end on the Cougars’ football team and was the leading scorer in the County with 443 points in the 1952-53 basketball season.

The 6-foot, 5-inch Gehring was an important member of the 1955-56 San Diego State basketball squad that advanced to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship tournament in Kansas City.

Gehring later was head track coach at Sweetwater High and Southwestern College.

Sam Edwards, 74,  was an end and defensive end on the 1958 San Diego High team that posted a 10-1 record, scored 457 points, and was one of the premier teams in Southern California.

Edwards, all-City  on defense for a team that allowed 57 points in 11 games, caught 4 of quarterback Ezell Singleton’s 28 touchdown passes and was one of nine Cavers who scored at least four touchdowns.

Wait till next year seems appropriate in San Diego Section basketball, according to the Cal-Hi Sports newsletter.

The Stockton-based publication is suggesting that St. Augustine could be a Top 20 team in the 2015-16 season.

That would be an accomplishment, since no San Diego squad finished in Cal-Hi Sports’ Top 20 this season.

St. Augustine was 23rd, Torrey Pines 24th, and Foothills Christian 26th in the online publication’s final top 40.

La Jolla Country Day was 15th in the girls’ ratings, Mission Hills 30th.

“”Pencil in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division champs (St. Augustine’s Saints) as a State Top 20 team next season, with five returning starters, including freshman standout Taeshon Taylor,” wrote Cal-Hi honcho Mark Tennis.

“The game that boosts the (Torrey Pines) Falcons up for the final rankings was their 54-49 win over No. 25 Long Beach Poly in one of the bigger upsets in the SoCal regionals,” said Tennis.

St. Augustine and Torrey Pines had not been ranked in prior Cal-Hi ratings.  Foothills Christian jumped from 35th after a one-point loss to Rancho Cucamonga Etiwanda (No. 5) in the regionals.

La Jolla Country Day’s girls achieved a lofty position with the poorest record (18-11) of any Boys’ or Girls’ Top 20 club.

“Anyone who saw the Torreys in person (on television or at the University of California’s Haas Arena) could see this is a team of the future that arrived in the state playoffs,” said Tennis.

“Because of injuries to several girls, including promising sophomore Alaysia Styles, 2012 coach of the year Terri Bamford had to retool the team,” Tennis noted.  “LJCD definitely will be the top preseason team to beat from the San Diego Section.”