LAS VEGAS – The Corona (CA) Centennial and Bishop Gorman programs used different approaches Friday in the Orleans Hotel Arena in an attempt to get to Saturday’s Platinum Division championship game in the Tarkanian Classic.
Both succeeded.
The Centennial Huskies (9-2), under Coach Josh Giles, continued to make a mockery of the tag “undergo” while holding off Santa Ana Mater Dei, 63-53, in the first of those Friday semifinals.
And Coach Grant Rice’s Bishop Gorman team put itself into position to complete the program’s defense of the division championship while rallying (from five points down with a bit more than 2 1/2 minutes to play) to knock off two-time, California Open Division runner-up Sacramento Sheldon, 75-66.
The Huskies and Gaels (7-0) will compete for the event’s top division crown, in a game set to tip at 4 o’clock in Bishop Gorman’s main gymnasium, in the eighth edition of the event named to honored the late Hall of Fame coach – and Las Vegas legend – Jerry Tarkanian.
It will be just one of seven boys’ title games to be played at Bishop Gorman Saturday.
For the complete schedule and results, go to www.TarkanianClassic.com
Centennial had already upset – a verb now meaningless with this feisty, Paris Dawson-led squad – JSerra (in the road), Rancho Christian (in a Battle Zone Tournament third-place games), Henderson (NV Coronado (in the Dec. 14 SoCal-Vegas Challenge in Southern California) before arriving in town.
Since here, the Huskies rallied from five points down late to stun (another of the verbs the Huskies are making a mockery of) Philadelphia Neumann Goretti in the first round; beat down Coronado by 35 points in a Thursday “rematch” and then, Friday, toppled a Mater Dei team that returned five starters from the squad that beat them in last season’s California Open sectional and regional playoffs.
The Monarchs (8-1) trailed by eight points with five minutes to go after a driving layup by Dawson (who played on Mater Dei’s summer squad before, ultimately, enrolling at Centennial).
But then Kentucky-bound Devin Askew – far short of stellar for most of the game – kept getting fouled by the Huskies, converting five of six to get the Monarchs to within 53-51.
But Dawson answered with a score off a nifty drive with 1:30 to go and, after a Mater Dei turnover, sophomore Donovan Dent converted two free throws to push the edge back to six points.
Askew scored his first – and only – field goal on a baseline drive to cut his squad’s deficit to four points with 55 seconds remaining but Dawson converted four free throws, wrapped around Askew’s fifth foul – and freshman Jared McCain hit two more free throws for the final points with 10 seconds remaining.
Dawson (who signed with Portland State last month) scored 17 of his game-high points after intermission.
Will McClendon (pictured) – one of three juniors in Rice’s starting lineup – scored 21 of his game-high 30 points to help the Gaels prevail in the second semi Friday.
Sheldon guard Xavion Brown’s “And 1!” with 2:28 remaining pushed his team’s advantage to five points (61-56) with 2:28 before the Huskies succumbed to the Gaels’ relentless aggression at both ends of the floor.
McClendon’s own “And 1!” 11 seconds after Brown’s started what proved to be a 19-5 closeout by the Gaels – during which their full-court pressure turned the Huskies over three consecutive times.
Leave a Reply