Quite the L.V. basketball “buffet” on tap for Sunday

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LAS VEGAS – And then there was one – that is, as in one July day’s worth of high school basketball in the last of three July NCAA recruiting evaluation periods.

We’re inching our way ever closer to the finish line, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls . . .

*Over at Bishop Gorman High, the field in the Fab 48/Invitational Division started at 32 before being whittled to eight late Friday night.

The most interesting – and, almost assuredly, entertaining – of the quarterfinals will be the 9:10 a.m.  (Court 1) contest pitting Belmont Shore (of Southern California) and Mo Williams Academy Elite (from Dallas).

It’s a rematch of the Tip-Off Challenge contest won by Belmont Shore, 101-93, Wednesday night.

Although the Bellflower (CA) St. John Bosco High duo of Daniel Hamilton (31) and Tyler Dorsey (34) combined for 65 points in that game, the difference proved to be the presence of 6-foot-10 Stephen Zimmerman.

And that was a one-game appearance in a Belmont Shore uniform for the nation’s top prospect in the Class of 2015, as Zimmerman played for his usual Dream Vision squad (in the adidas Super 64 across in the northern part of town at Rancho High) after that.

Will Belmont Shore be able to hold off MWAE – led by an immensely skilled (offensively, at least) pair of guards in Emmanuel Mudiay (arguably the top prospect in 2014, by way of Prime Time Prep in Dallas) and Malik Newman (Jackson, MS, Callaway) – minus the big left hander?

It’s going to be a chore but the 6-7 Hamilton and 6-4 Dorsey would seem to be up to the task.

Other quarterfinals, all at 8 a.m.: DC Assault vs. the Michigan Hurricanes (Court 1), Los Angeles-based Basketball Training Institute (BTI) vs. Ray Allen of Milwaukee (Court 2) and Net Gain Sports of Minnesota vs. Deron Williams-Pope of Dallas (Court 3).

The Washington, DC-based club has a big and physical frontcourt and Maryland-bound point guard Romelo Trimble (Arlington, VA, Bishop O’Connell) while the Michigan team has one of the more underrated point guards in the Class of 2014 in 6-4 Darrell Davis (Detroit Fredrick Douglass).

BTI has a 6-3 guard, Bryan Alberts (Sun Valley, CA, Village Christian) from the Class of 2014 who is being recruited by some NCAA D-I programs, as well as one of California’s best in the Class of 2016 in 5-11 Max Heidegger (Encino Crespi). BTI stunned the Arkansas Wings and Kansas City Run GMC on Saturday.

Ray Allen has one of the country’s best guards in the Class of 2014 in Riley LaChance (Brookfield, WI, Central), who led the squad to impressive victories over the Las Vegas Prospects and Los Angeles Rockfish Saturday.

The semifinals at set for 11:30 a.m. with the title game scheduled for 3 p.m.

*Over at Rancho, the adidas Super 64 saw some of its heavyweight programs go down as Dream Vision (and Zimmerman) and New Orleans Elite (led by 6-8 Craig Victor, who is from New Orleans but is transferring to Henderson, NV, Findlay Prep) were stunned Saturday evening.

Left standing for Sunday morning’s semifinals are Team Loaded of Virginia and New Heights of New York (9:20) and the Milwaukee Rebels and Garner Road Elite of North Carolina (at 10:40).

The title game in that tournament is also set for 3 o’clock.

The adidas 16-under division has a couple of nice semifinal contest (both at 8 a.m.) on Sunday at Rancho in the Colorado Hawks vs. Compton (CA) Magic, and the Wisconsin Players vs. Pennsylvania Pump-N-Run (championship set for noon).

*At Spring Valley, home to the Las Vegas Classic/Big Foot event, quarterfinals will be played at 10:10 (Texas 1 Ambassadors vs. Chicago’s Mac Irvin Elite, and Portland’s I-5 Elite vs. Team Texas) and 11:15 a.m. (Seattle Rotary vs. Arizona Power Black and Oakland Soldiers Blue vs. Oakland Soldiers Elite).

After the semifinals the championship will be decided at 3:35 p.m.

Come back to www.BurlisonOnBasketball.com later Sunday night for a wrap-up of all three events plus my “All-Las Vegas/Evaluation Period III” selections.