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Frank Burlison | High School Basketball | College Basketball

Crowe leads Lynwood to first-day win at Damien

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LA VERNE – Sophomore guard Jason Crowe Jr. scored 46 points to help Lynwood High pull away from Palisades to win their Silver Division game  Tuesday during the opening day of the 7th Classic at Damien.

There are 128 teams, spread over eight, 16-team brackets – on and near the Damien High campus – competing thru Saturday night in the west’s top post-Christmas boys’ basketball event.

Teams in the Silver, Bronze, Green, Copper, and Iron divisions played their first-round games Tuesday.

Competition opens in the Platinum, Gold, and Diamond divisions Wednesday, with the first two brackets played in the Damien Athletic and Event Centers, and the Diamond games played down the street at Ramona Middle School.

Heritage Christian and American Fork (of Utah; in its third trip to the Classic) begin Platinum play at 10 o’clock Wednesday morning in the Athletic Center.

The division also includes the state’s No. 2-ranked squad (St. John Bosco, which takes on Fresno’s Clovis North at 7 p.m.), as well as the north’s top three teams: Richmond Salesian (vs. Windward at 1 o’clock), Concord De La Salle (vs. Campbell Hall  at 11:30 a.m.) and Ross Branson (vs. Eastvale Roosevelt at 4 p.m.).

The host Spartans take on Phoenix Sunnyslope at 5:30.

In the Event Center, 11-0 Etiwanda faces St. George (UT) Dixie in a 5 o’clock Gold game, 90 minutes before St. Pius X/St. Matthias – which won the Platinum title at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas last week – faces another Utah squad, Lone Peak.

Lynwood (9-4) won three of its four games in the Tarkanian Classic last week, with Crowe – the Maxpreps.com National Freshman of the Year last season – hitting 50 points twice.

But Palisades (1-9) came out strong early, led by as many as six points in the first quarter behind the shooting of 6-foot-5 junior Aten Hassan (who scored a team-high 17 points).

The Knights, however, started converting in transition more consistently into the second quarter, taking 11-point edges into intermission and the fourth quarter before finally pulling away.

Another sophomore guard, Chace Holley, added 16 points for Lynwood. The Knights take on Hesperia, at 3 p.m. Wednesday, in the first Silver championship quarterfinal game set for Mt. San Antonio College.

Hesperia (7-5) led from jump in toppling St. Monica, 51-35, in the first Silver game played  in the Athletic Center Tuesday morning.

Freshman forward Jasiah Williams scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the second half for the Scorpions.

In the 4:30 Silver quarterfinal, San Gabriel Academy plays San Tan Charter of Gilbert in Arizona.

SGA (5-3), with multiple freshmen and sophomores in its rotation, led by 13 points at intermission before knocking off Paraclete (12-2), 62-52.

Freshmen Mohamed Toure (13) and Mahamodou Diop (8) combined for 21 points, and sophomore Moe Traore added 10 for the Eagles while senior Mister Burnside (all-CIF SS last season) led Paraclete with 21.

San Tan Charter (11-2), in its Classic debut, trailed by eight points in the first quarter but went up by three points at intermission and 10 after three before collecting the 67-54 victory over Aquinas.

Balance was the key for the Roadrunners: with freshman guard Notorious Street leading the way, four of their players scored from 11 to 17 points.

And, in the lower half of that bracket, a couple of teams from Washington joined another from Utah and another much closer to Damien to move into Wednesday quarterfinals.

Roosevelt of Seattle edged San Marin (from NorCal), 64-60, as junior forward Anthony Washington scored 17 points to bring the Roughriders to 8-0.

The Roughriders get Skyridge of Utah (a 67-64 winner in OT over Gardena Serra Tuesday) at 6 o’clock at Mt. SAC.

And, in the final Silver quarterfinal Wednesday (7:30 p.m.), Tahoma of Washington will be challenged by Southern California-based Pasadena.

Tahoma, in one of the more impressive performances of the day, held off Orange Lutheran (a member of the powerful Trinity League), 69-59, as senior forward Dalton Brown (pictured) scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Guards Jovan Lester (21 points) and Desmond Every (20) led Pasadena in its 68-58 win over Albany of Northern California.

For all Classic at Damien results and schedules, go to www.classicatdamien.org.

 

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