Basketball Games

Max Guercy's journey in high school basketball ends Saturday in the Division III state championship game in Sacramento. What an appropriate setting for a senior point guard from Mission Hills Alemany whose resilience and perseverance have helped turn skeptics into believers. "From the beginning of the season, I played with a chip on my shoulder," he said. "This year, I've been able to win. The schools that have offered me scholarships, they're seeing that size doesn't matter and know I can play.

What lockout? AEG, the owner of Staples Center, said that in the first four months of this year, the arena will make up for most of the events lost in the previous four months, when contract disputes between the National Basketball Assn. and its players left many venues, including Staples, dark for much of the fall. Now that the NBA is back in full swing, the 20,000-seat arena in downtown Los Angeles is booked nearly to capacity with games and concerts through April 26, the end of the NBA's season.

St. Louis plays noisy basketball. Shoes squeak because the Billikens are always moving their feet, whether on offense or defense. Players shout. They chatter to each other, call out defenses, bark out what play has been called, warn each other away from screens. The 2,637 who came Sunday to the Anaheim Convention Center for the 76 Classic were rewarded hearing the sounds of a basketball team that has a good plan. St. Louis (6-0) won the championship with an 83-63 win over Oklahoma (4-1)

The creation of the Pac-12 Networks was announced Wednesday, with details about a television network covering schools in the West coming from league Commissioner Larry Scott in New York. Beginning in August 2012, the Pacific 12 Conference will offer one primary national channel and six regional channels matching up teams paired in the same area (USC and UCLA, for example) that will televise 350 events annually on the main channel and 500 more regionally. So far the Pac-12 has signed cable providers Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox and Bright House to distribute the seven network channels.

UCLA football season must be here. Quarterback Brett Hundley on Wednesday will have the torn meniscus in his knee surgically repaired after being injured while playing in a pickup basketball game last month. Meanwhile, cornerback Anthony Jefferson is mulling his options for treatment on a disk problem in his back. This has become business as usual for the Bruins, who were overwhelmed by injuries during a 4-8 season in 2010. Hundley, the centerpiece of the Bruins' last recruiting class, will miss three to four weeks.

Until entering high school, the only thing that made Aaron Liberman stand out on the basketball court was his growing 6-foot-5 frame. He was more of a celebrity for his height than a basketball player among his friends and family. "The summer I entered ninth grade is when a former coach told me that I could make something of this if I really pushed myself," Liberman said. "That's when I started to realize I had some talent. " Now standing 6-9, Liberman has not only become one of the most successful players in Southern California, but the senior forward also has been a driving force in helping a small Jewish school get its first taste of athletic success.

Some say, in regards to life, that the sweet is never as sweet without the sour. That helps explains why the Clippers' 106-103 win Wednesday against Houston was like a barrel of sugar for guard Mo Williams . No, it had little to do with Williams, newly acquired by the Clippers in a trade from Cleveland, winning and playing well (17 points, 11 assists) in his home debut at Staples Center. That was just the icing. It was winning in general that took the cake, because Williams hasn't had much of that this season, given the Cavaliers' NBA-record 26-game losing streak, which ended against the Clippers last month.

When Chris Anderson was a 5-foot-4 freshman at Anaheim Canyon, he looked like a lost middle school student. He got attention because he was the younger brother of standout guard Jerime Anderson, but few expected him to develop into one of the best basketball players in Southern California. That's exactly what he has become, as demonstrated again on Friday night, when he scored 17 points, contributed nine assists and six rebounds to help the Comanches defeat Canyon Country Canyon, 65-59, in a Southern Section Division 2AA second-round playoff game in Canyon Country.

Presidential politics can be a bloody business, but it was a friendly basketball game Friday that gave President Obama a cut on his lip that required 12 stitches. Playing in a post-Thanksgiving pickup game with visiting family members and personal aide Reggie Love, Obama caught an elbow to the lip. The injury was treated by the medical unit located on the first floor of the White House. Obama was given a local anesthetic. The medical staff used a procedure that required more stitches than usual in an effort to minimize the scar.