NEWARK, Ca. – The ninth Prep2Prep Tip-Off – with seven games being served on the Thanksgiving Weekend platter – gets underway Saturday morning at 11 o’clock at Newark Memorial High.
Five of the games are “NorCal vs. NorCal” matchups, with the exceptions being the Sacramento Sheldon vs. Carlsbad Army-Navy (in San Diego County) at 3:45 p.m. and, in the 8:30 finale, Hayward Moreau Catholic vs. Chatsworth (in the San Fernando Valley) Sierra Canyon.
Sierra Canyon returns five starters from the team that won the California State Division V title last March in Berkeley.
And it returns a player who might be the best junior in California in 6-foot-8 Ira Lee, who missed all of last season following November shoulder surgery a year ago.
The Trailblazers are the consensus No. 2 choice (behind Chino Hills) as the best California prep team going into the season.
Among their other standouts are guards Devearl Ramsey (who signed with Nevada earlier in the month) and Remy Martin, and Cody Riley (like Lee and Martin, a member of the Class of 2017).
Moreau Catholic, perhaps the most gifted team in Northern California this season, has multiple standouts in the likes of seniors Oscar Frayer and Brandon Lawrence and junior point guard Damari Milstead.
Defending 2015 State Open champion Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, which will rely heavily on its junior and sophomore classes after losing the likes of State Player of the Year Ivan Rabb (California) and guard Paris Austin (Boise State) to graduation, takes on Dublin (from the East Bay) at 12:30 p.m.
The Dragons have one of the best sophomore point guards anywhere in high school hoops in Elijah Hardy.
The complete schedule: 11 a.m., Albany St. Mary’s vs. Manteca; 12:30 p.m., O’Dowd vs. Dublin; 2:15, Reedley Immanuel vs. Stockton Weston Ranch; 3:45, Sheldon vs. Army-Navy; 5:30, Modesto Christian vs. Folsom; 7, Newark Memorial vs. Roseville Woodcreek; 8:30, Moreau Catholic vs. Sierra Canyon.
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