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LA VERNE – Coach Steve Singleton is going to put Friday’s celebration near the top of the most memorable birthdays he’s experienced – and not entirely because he turned the big five-oh, either.

It’s because the happy birthday song he was serenaded with late that night came almost immediately following his Eastvale Roosevelt High basketball team’s third consecutive gut-crunching Platinum Division victory in the 7^th Classic at Damien Tournament.

In the second semifinal that need an overtime to wrap up, Singleton’s Mustangs outlasted the host Damien Spartans, 76-71, with senior guard Darnez Slater giving his team its final push into Saturday night’s title game by way of an 11-point burst in the four-minute extra stanza.

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LA VERNE – Unbeaten Richmond Salesian will be joined by St. John Bosco, Eastvale Roosevelt and the host Spartans in Friday night’s Platinum Division championship semifinals of the 7^th Classic at Damien.

And, in one of the 128-team event’s other seven brackets, Downey St. Pius X/St. Matthias inched a round closer to another high-profile tournament title Thursday night.

OK, so let’s take a deep breath before taking a deep dive into some of the Thursday action and looking into what’s in store for Friday’s fourth day of the top “true high school”, post-Christmas event in the country .

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LA VERNE – The No.’s 1- and 2-ranked teams from Northern California were among the among the Platinum Division’s eight first-round winners Wednesday during the second day of the 7^th Classic at Damien.

Richmond Salesian and Concord De La Salle — each 11-0 — are joined in Thursday’s second round on the winners’ side of the bracket by 11-1 St. John Bosco (set to play American Fork of Utah at 8:30 p.m.); 10-6 Corona Centennial (facing Salesian, at 7, in a rematch of a game played in Idaho on Dec.

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LA VERNE – Sophomore guard Jason Crowe Jr. scored 46 points to help Lynwood High pull away from Palisades to win their Silver Division game  Tuesday during the opening day of the 7^th Classic at Damien.

There are 128 teams, spread over eight, 16-team brackets – on and near the Damien High campus – competing thru Saturday night in the west’s top post-Christmas boys’ basketball event.

Teams in the Silver, Bronze, Green, Copper, and Iron divisions played their first-round games Tuesday.

Competition opens in the Platinum, Gold, and Diamond divisions Wednesday, with the first two brackets played in the Damien Athletic and Event Centers, and the Diamond games played down the street at Ramona Middle School.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL – Twenty members of the updated BurlisonOnBasketball Southern California Top 30 boys’ teams are among the 128 squads set to play in the 7^th annual Classic at Damien, which tips off Tuesday morning and runs through Saturday evening.

Games will be played in the Athletic and Event Centers on the Damien campus in La Verne, as well as on other near-by campuses.

First-round action in the Silver, Bronze, Green, Copper, and Iron divisions begins Tuesday morning, with the Platinum, Gold, and Diamond divisions — which include 19 of the teams in the Top 30 — following Wednesday.

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