Boys’ basketball: Fans come out for Mission League games

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Home-court advantage is important in the Mission League, where lots of schools have loyal and loud fans who try to inspire their teams to victory.

The most vocal fans can be found at West Hills Chaminade, where the student section calls itself ‘The Cage’ and is known to show its enthusiasm for showdown games, such as Monday night against Mission League favorite Loyola.

‘I can imagine they’ll be pretty fired up,’ Loyola Coach Jamal Adams said.

Loyola has come to expect challenging road environments, because it has been seen as the team to beat. The Cubs have their own strong home backing, particularly for rivalry games, such as Harvard-Westlake. The two schools have been forced to play their games at bigger venues. This season, Loyola will play Harvard-Westlake at Occidental College on Jan. 16.

The Crespi-Notre Dame games also usually draw packed gyms, and St. Francis fills for its game against Loyola. Alemany, which won the league title last season, can put together a good crowd on occasion. And Harvard-Westlake students always come out for Loyola, but their inconsistency leaves the opportunity for teams to steal a victory when there’s a sparse gathering at Harvard-Westlake.

So get ready for a loud, entertaining crowd at Chaminade _ if you can get a seat.

-- Eric Sondheimer