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   LAGUNA NIGUEL – Some of Southern California’s best high school basketball teams will be in Las Vegas and Hawaii this week, with potential semifinal showdowns involving four of them during high-profile tournaments.

   *Rancho Christian(No. 2 in the BurlisonOnBasketball Southern California Top 25) is joined by Chino Hills (No. 10) and Orange Lutheran (No. 17) in the Platinum Division of the Tarkanian Classic, which tips off Wednesday in the Orleans Hotel Arena and continues over the next three days at Bishop Gorman High.

   Rancho Christian and Chino Hills are in the upper bracket of the division, and could meet in a Friday night semifinal at Bishop Gorman.

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CARLSBAD, Ca. – The Bishop Montgomery High basketball team has been, pretty much, without two starters and a gifted transfer since the first week of the season.

  But the Knights of Coach Doug Mitchell keep chugging along with the same approach that has made them one of the better programs in California for a good long while.

  And that was the case again Saturday night when two seniors, Will Crawford and Josh Vazquez, turned in the kind of performances we  have rightly come to expect from the four-year varsity veterans.

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  BELLFLOWER – There wasn’t anything approaching suspense during the three games played at St. John Bosco High Monday evening during Day I of the boys’ basketball tournament it is co-hosting with Gahr High.

   *In Game 1, Loyola turned a half-court advantage of eight points into 24 points after three quarters before cruising past Covina, 75-53.

  *Game 2 saw the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits get off to a bit of a wobbly start (trailing 8-1) before they kicked things into overdrive while having their way with Palisades, 80-41.

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   LAGUNA NIGUEL – Several of the CIF Southern Section’s top teams will venture into San Diego County this week for match-ups with some of that section’s top programs.

   *Rancho Christian,which remained No. 3 in this week’s BurlisonOnBasketball Top 25, is in San Diego Friday night to face No. 24 and host Mission Bay, the 2018 San Diego Section Open Division champion. In the first game of that “Mission Bay Beach Bash” double-header, No. 19 Orange Lutheran takes on La Jolla Country Day and its Princeton-bound guard, Ryan Langborg.

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SCOTTSDALE, Az. – Sixteen games – featuring involving 24 teams – spread over three days at Chaparral High made for what will prove, no doubt, to be one of the most entertaining and talent-laden high school hoops events of the 2018-19.

   None of those 24 teams (eight of which played twice) fit the “most entertaining” and “talent-laden” description more so than did the Rancho Christian Eagles from Temecula from some of the most southeastern reaches of “Southern California”.

   Saturday night, in the most noteworthy “showdown” of the eight games played on the event’s final day, Coach Ray Barefield’s, Mobley Brothers-led crew rallied from 11 points down in the second quarter before topping Nico Mannion and his Pinnacle High teammates, 89-79.

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