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RANCHO MIRAGE, Ca. – The first day of Open Division play in the MaxPreps Holiday Classic at Rancho Mirage featured plenty of impressive performances from both teams and individuals.

There just wasn’t anything approaching a “surprise”.

The top four seeds won their Round of 16 games Friday by an average margin of 17 points.

Santa Ana, CA, Mater Dei – which toppled American Fork of Utah, 63-46, in a game that wasn’t a wrap until Friday night at about 11:30 – played twice. The Monarchs also knocked off the host Rancho Mirage Rattlers in a tune-up of sorts, 85-56.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – The “post-Christmas” portion of the high school basketball season, Southern California-style, will feature two of the very best holiday tournaments in the country.

Rancho Mirage High (31001 Rattler Road) will be the main site for the MaxPreps Holiday Classic, with Torrey Pines in San Diego (3710 Del Mar Heights) serving the same duties for the Under Armour/Torrey Pines Holiday Classic, both of which tip on Friday.

The 16-team field in the MaxPreps Open Division includes “traditional” powers Santa Ana Mater Dei and Etiwanda, as well as four other Southern California programs in Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, La Verne Damien, San Juan Capistrano Saddleback Valley Christian and Mission Hills Alemany.

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LAS VEGAS – The high school portion of the third Tarkanian Classic, highlighted by a whole lot of thrilling finishes over four days, ended in rather matter-of-fact fashion Saturday night at Bishop Gorman High.

The Redondo Beach (CA) Redondo Sea Hawks dominated the Oklahoma City Putnam City West Patriots for the bulk of the Platinum Division championship game’s 32 minutes to come away with a 66-51 victory.

For Coach Reggie Morris’ underclass-laden club, junior Leland Green (14 points, five rebounds and five steals) had multiple “Dwyane Wade-like” finishes; classmate Morgan Means (11 points, six rebounds and seven assists) may have been his team’s most consistent player over four days; and sophomore Billy Preston (17 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots) turned in his most impressive (and foul-free) extended performance of the event.

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LAS VEGAS – The host Bishop Gorman Gaels and Corona (CA) Centennial Huskies hook up in Saturday’s final day of action in the Platinum Division of the third Jerry Tarkanian Classic.

That is not surprising in itself.

What is perhaps startling to many is that the game will tip off at 3:40 in the afternoon – and will be contested for third place.

That’s because the division’s top two seeds were stunned in down-to-the-wire semifinals Friday evening in the Orleans Hotel Arena.

In the first semifinal the Huskies were edged by another of the better teams in California, Redondo Beach Redondo, 55-54.

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LAS VEGAS – Four Platinum Division teams will re-locate to a bigger stage – the court inside The Orleans Hotel Arena – for the third Tarkanian Classic semifinals Friday evening.

Three games from within the “Prep Division” begin at 11 a.m. and are highlighted by a 3 o’clock contest featuring two of the elite underclassmen in the country, junior Josh Jackson (Napa, CA, Prolific Prep) and sophomore Jarred Vanderbilt (Houston Victory Prep).

And then the “real” high school action gets underway when Southern California squads Corona Centennial and Redondo Beach Redondo hook up in the first Platinum semifinal at 5, with tournament host Bishop Gorman taking on Putnam City, OK, West at approximately 7 o’clock.

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