With all due respect to Damien, Bishop Amat, and La Verne Lutheran, Baldwin Park is the feel-good story of the 2010 boys basketball playoffs. For one, they’re the only area public school left in CIF playoffs that are designed to benefit the rich private and public school powerhouses, which is why the best teams in the Southern Section are spread over so many divisions, making sure the best programs have the easiest roads to the finals, which is the best way for CIF to fill up its seats at the big venues and make its money. It’s awful, but that’s the way it is, which is why what Baldwin Park is doing is such a breath of fresh air. And look how they did it, squeezing out a 54-53 win over Eastside followed by another clutch 88-87 overtime victory on the road at Villa Park for their first playoff victories since 1984. Yes, 26 years! My goodness, now they get Keppel in the quarters at home on Tuesday, and though Keppel is extremely quick and talented, they’re not physically over-powering. The Braves have a shot, they really do. Keppel historically is a great home team with incredible fans, and they will bring it. Hopefully the city of Baldwin Park shows up on Tuesday, they will need every student, alumni, teacher and fan of the town to rock the house and make the Aztecs as uncomfortable as possible. The Braves (24-4) are 8-1 at home and four out of five of Keppel’s (23-5) losses have come on the road. If the Braves win, they could have the ridiculous task of having to face Pasadena in the semifinals, but enjoy this first. There might not be another season like this in Braveheart Country for years, so if you’re going to attend just one game, this is it.

Baldwin Park’s record-setting season
All these are bests in school hisotry
3 – Tournament Wins
24 – Most Wins in a Season
101 – Most points scored in a game
1,979 – Most points in a season
70.0 – Highest scoring average in a season.