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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Some extensive navigating of the Southern California freeway system was involved, but the final Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday of 2012 provided a wonderful way to wrap up the December portion of the high school hoops season.

I spent Wednesday at Torrey Pines High in San Diego County, watching the first round of National Division games that made up the 23^rd edition of the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic.

Teams that impressed me were Richmond Salesian, Sacramento Sheldon, Los Angeles Windward, San Diego St.

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PALM SPRINGS, Ca. – The MaxPreps Holiday Classic gets underway Wednesday with the Invitational Division the headliner from among the 10 boys’ varsity divisions from which teams will be competing for titles over the next four days.

Foremost among the nationally known elements in the Invitational Division field are Richmond (TX) Fort Bend Travis, led by Kentucky-bound twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison, and Los Angeles Loyola, which is off to an 8-0 start behind the play of junior point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

First-round games Wednesday will be played at three sites: Cathedral City High, Palm Desert High and College of the Desert (a community college).

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SAN DIEGO – Most of the first 22 Torrey Pines Holiday Prep Classic events can easily be classified as among the very best of the post-Christmas boys hoops tournaments – both regionally and nationally.

And the 23^rd version of the event – sponsored by Under Armour – figures to slip neatly into that category as well.

Five separate tournaments – the National, American, Mayor’s, Governor’s and Senator’s – will once again be held under the banner of the TPHPC, with the National Division stacked with its usual cache of top-flight programs, from within California and beyond.

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Friday night, the entire Mater Dei High team and coaching staff remained seated on the Monarchs’ bench after the team’s victory over Savior of New York in a semifinal of the inaugural Jerry Tarkanian Las Vegas Classic at Bishop Gorman High.

Why? Coach Gary McKnight wanted his players and staff to pay homage to Tarkanian when the 82 year-old coaching legend was honored in between the event’s semifinals.

And, Saturday night — when Tarkanian watching from court-side — the Monarchs paid their respects to Tarkanian in another fashion:

They put on a marvelous display of dominant basketball while breaking out to a 14-zip advantage and then easing their way past the host Gaels, 76-60.

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Appropriately enough, the final game of the evening was the most compelling during Friday’s Day III of the inaugural Jerry Tarkanian Las Vegas Classic at Bishop Gorman High.

Trailing by as many as 10 points very late in regulation the host Gaels – behind the magnificent play of scintillating senior wing Rashad Muhammad and sensational sophomore Stephen Zimmerman – pulled out an improbable 83-80 overtime-victory over Morgan Park of Chicago.

I write “improbable” because, like so many other states (unfortunately), games in Nevada are played without a shot block and, with a 10-point deficit late in the game, a whole lot of things had to go right for the Coach Dave Rice’s team to pull the thing out.

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