Trying to sort out all of these Fab 48 games

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LAS VEGAS – Bishop Gorman High was the locale for me for the second time in three tries – eh, NCAA basketball evaluation days – Friday.

I saw a flock of Fab 48 pool-play games – not a Flock of Seagulls, the early 1980s British new wave band that I’m sure has played in town a few times in the last decade or so (apparently it is still hacking out a living with those peculiar hair styles and modern renditions of a handful of hits, including “I Ran”).

But I digress.

Let’s get with it:

*On Court 2 at 8:30 in the a.m., it was a confrontation of some of the better backcourt players in Southern California and it was the Big Ballers rallying from a 14-point deficit and knocking off Superior Athletes, 79-76.

Junior-to-be Lonzo Ball made a boatload of plays down the stretch for the Big Ballers, even while mostly being checked by one of the elite perimeter defenders in the West in Jeremy Hemsley, and his sophomore-to-be brother Li’Angelo Ball seemingly hit about five shots down the stretch from the 215 Freeway.

In the Hoops Irony Department: The Ball Brothers and their Chino Hills teammates beat the teams of Superior Athletes standouts Hemsley (Damien, in the Baseline League), Stephen Thompson Jr. (Torrance Bishop Montgomery, in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs) and Kendall Small (Lakewood Mayfair, in the semifinals of the State Division I Southern Regionals) last season.

*DC Premier – which, when the organization was known as DC Assault, won the 17s Invitational last year – picked up two wins Friday to go 3-zip in its pool going into bracket play on Saturday morning.

With its size and depth up front, and its equally deep and skilled backcourt, DC Premier is the favorite to repeat as champion, IMHO.

*Two key players from Jason Smith’s national Prep Academy champion from Brewster Academy, center Jared Reuter (New England Playaz) and Donovan Mitchell (The City) helped their teams to wins in games I watched Friday afternoon.

Reuter, who may be the best passing post player in this tournament, hit the winning free throw in his team’s 63-62 Big Red – better known as Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei, the program that went 35-zip last season for to win a mythical national championship.

The Monarchs no longer have now-Arizona freshman Stanley Johnson but did have three other 2013-14 starters in Rex Pflueger, La’Vette Parker and Michael Cage Jr.

Reuter had a sterling low-post battle against Cage in the most well played game I watched Friday. It was a real basketball game, not the slop-fest that usually past for such in these events.

And Mitchell, while helping to rally his team past Lakeshow (from Northern California) in double OT (66-60), continued to show the form that is making him one of the more heavily recruited guards from the East.

*The best point guard in the Class of 2015 – Isaiah Briscoe (Roselle Catholic in New Jersey) – helped his New Jersey Playaz team knock off Upward Stars (South Carolina) in the afternoon

But the Playaz hopes of an Invitational Division crown may have taken a big hit when Briscoe suffered an apparent ankle injury in the closing seconds of regulation with Southern California’s Belmont Shore team late Friday night.

Junior-to-be Temple Gibbs hit a desperation 45-footer (give or take) at the buzzer to send things into OT for the New Jersey squad and the Playaz overcame the scoring production of soon-to-be former Bellflower (CA) St. John Bosco players Vance Jackson (33 points) and Tyler Dorsey (29) to win, 90-86.

Winning five playoff games without Briscoe or without him close to 100 percent would be a tough task, indeed.

*Chris Silva (Roselle, NJ, Catholic High) led Sports U to a 3-zip mark in pool play and has been as impressive as any power forward-type as I’ve seen in Las Vegas over the past four nights (including the Earl Watson Elite-fronted showcase contests I watched at Coronado High Tuesday night, 24 hours before the NCAA coaches’ view period began).

No one has climbed higher than Silva for dunks and rebounds in the Bishop Gorman gymnasium since Wednesday evening.

*Makol Maiwen and Horace Spencer had another nice post hookup Friday afternoon but ultimately it was Maiwen and his Utah Prospects teammates who prevailed over Spencer and the rest of the Gym Rats crew, 57-47.

*Another team going 3-0 in pool was 1Nation (from Michigan), which was playing without its best player, Josh Jackson, who was in Colorado Springs for USA Basketball Trials.

But it still has a lot of quality players, including point guard Josh McFolley and forwards Gerald Blackshear and Joshua Davis, as well as another big-jumping forward in Devon Dillard (who played in the spring for Mac Irvin Fire).

I’ll be in the Cashman Center Saturday morning and early afternoon to watch the adidas Super 64 second-round bracket games.

Then it’s off to either Bishop Gorman (Fab 48) or Spring Valley High (Big Foot Las Vegas Classic) playoff affairs.