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SAN DIEGO – If you showed up at Torrey Pines Thursday morning at about 9:30 expecting some 13 hours of post-Christmas hoops merriment, you didn’t head home muttering “bah, humbug” – or whatever the basketball equivalent might be.

The first day of the National Division of the Under Armour Holiday Classic promised to showcase some of the better high school teams and players from coast to coast.

It delivered on that promise.

Eight games were played and something approaching four times that many future major college players were on display.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – Deck the halls – with lot of bouncing basketballs!

That will be the case, post-Christmas with high school tournaments galore.

The following are some of the opening-day schedules I was able to get my mittens on – if mittens were needed in a Christmas “season” in Southern California during which temperatures have climbed into the 80s.

My schedule: I’ll be at Torrey Pines all day on Thursday; La Costa Canyon all of Friday and Rancho Mirage on Saturday.

Monday is to be determined, based upon what transpires Thursday-Saturday:

 

CHAMINADE CHRISTMAS CLASSIC

(Dec.

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LAS VEGAS – There are some, no doubt, who might beg to differ.

But I would suggest that high school basketball doesn’t come any better – or, at least, more entertaining and/or suspenseful – than what was on display in the Bishop Gorman High gymnasium Saturday evening.

I doubt very seriously that anyone in attendance for the Montrose Christian-Findlay Prep and Mater Dei-Bishop O’Dowd games that closed out the second annual Tarkanian Classic would disagree with me.

In the last of the Prep School Division contests, Findlay Prep (based not far away in Henderson) led by double-figure margins most of its game against Montrose Christian (located in Montrose, MD).

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LAS VEGAS — Is it possible that a preview of the 2014 California State Open Division championship games is going to be played Saturday night at 7:30 in Bishop Gorman High gymnasium?

It doesn’t take a leap in faith to answer “Yes, there will be” to that question.

Oakland Bishop O’Dowd and Santa Ana Mater Dei cruised to semifinal victories Friday evening at the Orleans Arena, setting up “Northern vs. Southern California” finale in the second Tarkanian Classic.

Both the Dragons (68-54 over Las Vegas Bishop Gorman) and Monarchs (while overwhelming one of Southern California’s better teams, Redondo Beach Redondo, 84-38) looked the part of teams that will compete for California’s ultimate team hoops prize in Sacramento on March 29.

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LAS VEGAS – The top five seeds in the National Division won by an average margin of 21 points during Round of 16 games Friday on the second day of the second annual Tarkanian Classic at Bishop Gorman High.

Defending championship Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei (72-58 over Las Vegas Clark), 2012 runner-up Gorman (65-49 over Sacramento Sheldon), Oakland (CA) Bishop O’Dowd (78-34 over Las Vegas Durango), Highland (UT) Lone Peak (70-54 over Modesto Christian) and Redondo Beach (CA) Redondo (63-46 over Portland Central Catholic) advanced to the quarterfinals that will be played Friday morning and afternoon.

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