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HUNTINGTON BEACH, Ca. – Gary McKnight’s Santa Ana Mater Dei may have lost three starters from last season to major college programs.

But don’t expect much drop-off at all from of the best high school programs in the U.S. of A.

That was evident Wednesday night with the Monarchs cruised to an 83-38 quarterfinal victory over Downey Warren in a quarterfinal of the Jim Harris Memorial Tournament of Championships at Ocean View High.

Katin Reinhart (UNLV) and Xavier Johnson and Eli Stalzer (both at Colorado) were key elements to Mater Dei’s run to Southern Section IAA and State Division I titles last spring.

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SANTA MONICA, Ca. – Another night of hoops at Santa Monica High and another night of decidedly one-sided outcomes during the third annual “The Tournament”.

Top seed El Camino Real rolled past L.A. Fremont, 85-30, during a Tuesday night when only one of the four contests was decided by as few as 15 points.

One thing is certain: The four quarterfinal contests will all be much, much more competitive than were the opening round games.

The first two of those quarterfinals, Brentwood vs. Loyola (6:30) and host Santa Monica vs.

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SANTA MONICA, Ca. – The “competitive game” percentage was a paltry .250.

Not that there wasn’t plenty to find entertaining about the four games played in the opening day of competition at the third annual “The Tournament”, hosted by Santa Monica High Monday.

The host Vikings jumped out to a 30-4 advantage before easing past Oaks Christian, 63-49, in the final game of the evening.

Loyola – which captured the Torrance Tournament last weekend and is led by dynamic point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright – wasn’t threatened in the opener while coasting over Cleveland, 61-39.

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  LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Week II of the Southland prep hoops season means another tasty menu of tournament action.

Those with the most impressive fields including “The Tournament”, at Santa Monica High, and “The Jim Harris Memorial Tournament of Champions”, at Ocean View High in Huntington Beach.

Each of the events’ championship games are set for Saturday night at 8 or 8:15.

Here’s a look at four of the fields:

 

THE TOURNAMENT

At Santa Monica HS

MONDAY: 3:30, Cleveland vs. Loyola; 5, Brentwood vs. Providence; 6:30, Palisades vs.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – There have been numerous Rick Majerus tributes written over the past couple of days, many of those by writers much more gifted than I.

So I’m not looking for figurative kudos for these brief recollections and impressions of a man I first met 35 years ago, waiting for our respective flights out of what was then called Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan) after coming attending the Capital Classic All-Star Game.

I’d just like to see some of those thoughts on the screen of this laptop and, hopefully, you can gain in your understanding of a man whose influence on me spanned a lot more than just my understanding of basketball.

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