Oh-so-many hoopsters on display in L.V.

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LAS VEGAS – The presence of Shabazz Muhammad and Rosco Allen on the bench, and the addition of non-Gaels such as Katin Reinhardt to the roster took away a lot of the true “Bishop Gorman vs. Findlay Prep” flavor to the contest Wednesday night.

That conceded, there didn’t appear to be many among the crowd in the Bishop Gorman gymnasium demanding their $10 admission back after the finale of the Fullcourt Press Las Vegas Fall Classic.

The lead changed hands three times in the final 47 seconds, with a 3-point attempt by Reinhardt (Santa Ana, CA, Mater Dei) just missing with three seconds remaining and Julian Jacobs’ follow attempt swatted away at the buzzer by Amedeo Della Valle to secure Findlay Prep’s 81-80 victory over the “Best of Vegas” squad in the capper to the five-game event.

Gorman’s Muhammad (resting his tender ankle that was originally sprained in July) and Allen (waiting to for new contact lenses) were spectators and certainly would have impacted things considerably had they played.

But Findlay Prep Coach Mike Peck went deep and often to his deep bench, with key players such as Brandon Ashley, Winston Shepard and Dominic Artis sharing time with reserves.

So a, per se, straight up battle between of the most gifted prep squads in the United States didn’t take place.

It was equal parts entertaining and informative, though.

The 6-foot-4 Reinhardt, who flew into town after his final class of the day at Mater Dei, dazzled a crowd heavily laced with scarlet-clad UNLV supporters with a variety of deep 3s and penetrations and scores – or assists – to help the “Best of Vegas” squad claw back from an early 20-point deficit to take leads of three and four points fairly deep into the second half.

The crowd went giddy over every Reinhardt jumper or crossover and erupted once in the second half when, following a 25-footer right in front of the bleachers, he turned to go back on defense and pulled up his jersey to reveal a UNLV t-shirt.

But, although one Bishop Gorman senior – 6-8 Ben Carter – played an exceptional second half and one of the west region’s best junior guards, Julian Jacobs of Las Vegas Desert Pines, was remarkably good throughout for the “Best of Vegas”, Findlay Prep had too many places to turn when it needed a big play or shot.

Opponents wisely mostly chose to get out of the way when Anthony Bennett decided to attack the rim while Ashley, Shepard and Christian Wood (the junior from Southern California with the velour-like jump shot) each helped Findlay Prep re-group down the stretch, with Nigel Goss-Williams hitting the go-ahead drive with 27 seconds to play.

The revelations, though, came by way of the play of slender (205 pounds – maybe) 7-footer Matt Willms (Leamington, Ontario, Canada) and Della Valle, a 6-4 guard from Alba, Italy.

Willms, who recently visited Texas A&M, already has a multitude of high-profile college programs in pursuit and the same should be said very shortly about Della Valle, who will be able to play either guard spot with equal aplomb on an upper-tier of college hoops.

Prior to the final contest, the star of the evening easily was a Bishop Gorman freshman who didn’t play in the Freshman/8^th-grade game but dominated things with ease at both ends of the floor in the sophomore and junior games.

The 6-10 Stephen Zimmerman didn’t play a whole lot in the last game but he had already aptly sent veteran observers reaching well back into their memory banks trying to recall a player at that size and age from the west with such a wealth of skill.

Uh, none comes immediately to mind.

And the guy still has four FULL high school seasons to play – scary stuff, indeed.

Other standouts Wednesday night (by game):

• Senior: 6-0 Ruben Jackson (Las Vegas Silverado), 6-2 Durell McDonald (Henderson Green Valley) and 6-7 Joe Tuss (Las Vegas Durango).
• Junior: 6-4 Sir Washington (Las Vegas Clark), 6-4 Tyler Roberts (Henderson Football) and 5-11 Tyler Jones (Durango).
• Sophomore: 6-0 Shaquille Carr (Las Vegas Canyon Springs), 6-5 Diontae Jones (Clark) and 6-2 Darry Gaynor (Las Vegas Palo Verde).
• Freshman/Eighth: 6-4 Nick Blair (Gorman/freshman), 6-2 ½ D’Quan Crockett (Clark/freshman), 6-2 Kwinton Henson (Durango/freshman) and 6-4 Deon Whiteside (Gorman/freshman).

Two players in the first game of the evening have some pretty impressive bloodlines.

Five-five freshman Alex Tarkanian (Las Vegas Bonanza) is the grandson of legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian and Charles O’Bannon Jr. (a 5-11 seventh grader at Las Vegas Calvary Chapel) is the son of one of the starters on the 1995 UCLA national championship team and the nephew of Ed O’Bannon, the 1995 John R. Wooden Award winner.