Mater Dei, host Lions head Fairfax summer tourney

June 25, 2017 By Frank Burlison Leave a Comment

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LOS ANGELES – The 31^st Nike Fairfax Summer Classic tips off Monday afternoon at 3 o’clock with, as usual, many of Southern California’s top programs involved.

First-round action will be played with four games each on Monday and Tuesday, quarterfinals on Wednesday and Thursday, semifinals on Friday and final-day action on Saturday, wrapping up with the 6 o’clock championship game.

Mater Dei, paced by two-time all-CIF Southern Section selection and Harvard University-bound point guard Spencer Freedman and 7-foot-3 Bol Bol, is the top seed with host Fairfax, led by all-L.A. City guards Jamal Hartwell and Ethan Anderson, as the two seed.

The Fairfax campus is located at 7850 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

Here are the opening-round matchups:

MONDAY: 3 p.m., Pasadena vs. L.A. Loyola; 4:30, Long Beach Poly vs. Santa Monica; 6, Rolling Hills Prep vs. Temecula Rancho Christian; 7:30, Santa Ana Mater Dei vs. Northridge Heritage Christian.

TUESDAY: 3 p.m., Mission Hills Alemany vs. L.A. Brentwood; 4:30, Pasadena Maranatha vs. Orange Lutheran; 6, La Canada vs. L.A. Fairfax; 7:30, Beverly Hills vs. Encino Crespi.

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Frank Burlison is a well-regarded basketball writer who was inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2005. His opinions on the potential of high school and college players are widely respected and sought by college coaches and NBA scouts, personnel directors and general managers from coast to coast. Oh, yes – he can offer plenty of thoughts on movies, television and pop music. Yes, he can rank those, too. Hint: He’s a big The Godfather, Larry Sanders, The Wire and The Beatles loyalist.

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Gary McKnight

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Gary McKnight

Winningest coach (892-81) in California boys’ basketball history during his 29 seasons at Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei

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George Raveling

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George Raveling

3x Pac-10 Coach of the Year, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer

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1977 National Player of the Year, 5x NBA All-Star