The clearer path to a CIF Southern Section title for the La Mirada boys basketball team would be for it to slip out of Open Division consideration and take a run at a Division 1 championship.

In Division 1, a public school like La Mirada can avoid most of the private-school heavyweights that usually fill up the Open Division spots.

But La Mirada boys basketball coach Randy Oronoz wants to make it clear that is not his team’s approach.

“We want to be in the Open Division,” Oronoz said. “That’s been our goal all season. It would be disappointing, especially for our players, if we didn’t get in.”

Like football, the CIF-SS boys basketball playoff divisions will be determined by computer rankings. In past years, the CIF-SS would select what it felt was the best teams for the Open Division and the CIF-SS would determine how many teams get selected.

In recent years the Open Division has been comprised of eight teams, with teams split into four-team pools, with the winner of each pool playing for the Open Division title. All eight are also guaranteed a berth in the CIF State playoffs regardless of how they finish in the Open playoffs.

La Mirada (23-4) felt like a virtual lock to make the Open Division based on the computer rankings that came out last week, with the Matadores ranked No. 5. The Matadores played one of the toughest nonleague schedules in the CIF-SS, and two of its losses were to St. John Bosco, a team in the top four of the rankings all season.

But to Oronoz’s surprise, when the rankings came out Monday, the Matadores had slipped to No. 8 despite recently having back-to-back blowout wins over Lynwood (98-46) and Dominguez (82-34).

If the CIF-SS decides to go with eight teams, the Matadores are on the bubble. Teams like No. 9-ranked Notre Dame and No. 10 Heritage Christian could potentially pass them when the final regular-season games are played and the pairings are released Saturday.

“When I told our kids on Monday that they had dropped three spots, you should have seen the look on their faces, there was disappointment,” Oronoz said. “I don’t know what else they have to do? We played the second-hardest schedule (of CIF-SS teams) going into league play. Our league isn’t as strong as some of the private school leagues, but I think we proved and have showed we can play with anyone and deserve to get in (Open Division).

“Everyone knows we’re an Open Division team. It’s a little nerve-racking and confusing to beat two teams by 50 points and drop three spots, but we have a big game coming up and we’ll see how that impacts everything when the final decisions are made.”

La Mirada, which is 7-0 in the Gateway League, gets to make its final statement when it hosts Mayfair (22-5, 6-1) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. with a chance to win the league title outright.

“We’re putting a lot of pressure on this game and that’s the way it should be,” Oronoz said. “We’re going for our fourth straight league title. Our seniors have never lost a home game in league and it’s a chance for them to go 28-2 in league over their four years.

“And it’s a chance to show again we should be in the Open. There’s a lot riding on it. We don’t want to lose, that could impact our ranking if we go to Division 1. We want to win and give the (CIF-SS) committee a lot to think about it.”

There has been some buzz that the CIF-SS could select 10 teams for the Open Division, which would almost certainly guarantee an invite for La Mirada. With 10 teams, however, only eight would get an automatic invite to the state playoffs and the two who finished last in their pools would be done.

“If selecting 10 teams is what gets us in the Open Division, select 10,” Oronoz said. “If you lose all four games you shouldn’t go to the state playoffs. Look, we feel like we belong. If we’re No. 10 and 10 teams get in, we’ll take on (No. 1) Harvard-Westlake. We don’t care, we feel like we can play with anyone.”