LA VERNE, Ca. – The second “The Classic at Damien” boys’ basketball tournament, presented by Mark Christopher Auto Center, tips off Tuesday morning at 9:30 with a field expanded to 64 teams over four divisions.
And that field appears to be even stronger than it was during the event’s maiden voyage in 2016.
Twelve teams from the latest Top 20 Prep Hoops/SoCal rankings and 13 from the L.A. Times’ Top 25 will participating in the tournament, that culminates Saturday with the four divisional championship games that will be played on the Damien High campus.
Platinum (top division) games will be played in Damien’s Athletic Center, with Gold games played in the campus’ Event Center (separated by an approximate two-minute walk).
Early-round games in the Silver and Bronze Divisions will be played at near-by Bonita and San Dimas high schools, and Life Pacific College.
The four championship games will be played at Damien on Saturday.
For complete schedules and ticket in formation, go to the event’s website at https://www.theclassicatdamien.com/
The 16 Platinum teams take a combined 118-38 records into the week with a collective 11 tournament championships in December.
The opening game on the Damien campus is the 9:30 a.m. Gold Division game played between 6-3 Dominguez and 5-3 Leuzinger.
The Dons (who won the Eastbay Division of the Tarkanian Classic last week) are led by Cal State Fullerton-bound guard Wayne Arnold while Leuzinger is paced by one of Southern California’s better sophomores in Amound Anderson.
The first Platinum game tips at 10 with 9-1 Rancho Christian facing 5-4 Cajon.
Brothers Isaiah (a junior) and Evan (a sophomore) Mobley were all-tourney choices in Las Vegas last week when Rancho Christian won the Tarkanian Classic Platinum consolation crown.
Cajon figures to be much improved from its early-season performance based upon the addition of football standouts Jeremiah Martin and Darren Jones, two of the best frontcourt players in Southern California.
Nine programs (Alemany, Birmingham, Corona Centennial, Damien, Etiwanda, Long Beach Poly, Oak Park, Rancho Christian and St. John Bosco) return to the event’s top division (which, a year ago, was “Gold”).
Among newcomers to the event are 8-2 Santa Margarita (led by junior Jake Kyman/pictured) and Pasadena (with UNLV-bound Bryce Hamilton).
Players in the event who were all-Classic at Damien a year ago include Riley Battin (Oak Park), Kessler Edwards (Etiwanda), Jarod Lucas (Los Altos), Jules Bernard (Windward), Cameron Shelton (Damien), Kihei Clark (Taft) and Taurus Samuels (Vista).
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