Frank Burlison

If not for the ravages on all walks of life wreaked by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the fifth Classic at Damien would have tipped off Saturday morning at Damien High in La Verne.

And, for the fifth time, it would have been the most competitive and entertaining post-Christmas boys’ basketball tournament in the western portion of the United States.

The 80-team event (five, 16-team divisions) has been re-scheduled – assuming any reasonable return to a sense of “normalcy” –to April 5-10.

The Rancho Christian program – which, led by two-time event Most Outstanding Player and current-USC freshman standout Evan Mobley – opted not to return for this “2020-21 season” after winning consecutive Open (top) Division championships.

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CHANDLER, Az. – Some future Southeastern Conference players came through in a big way Sunday afternoon while leading the South squad to victory over its West counterpart in the championship game of the first-ever Pangos All-American Festival.

And the most notable of those was 6-foot-9 Jabari Smith, no doubt bound for future stardom for Bruce Pearl’s University of Auburn program.

Smith (pictured) – who attends Sandy Creek High in Tyrone, about 30 miles south of Atlanta – scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds to help the South to a 98-89 victory over a West club that included a future SEC player of its own.

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CHANDLER, Az. – Saturday’s overwhelming performance by the Paolo Banchero-led West team, and a terrific close-the-game effort by the South squad, set the table for the Sunday afternoon title game in the first-ever Pangos All-American Festival.

The West vs. South title game is set to tip off at 1 p.m. (MT) at Compass Prep in this Phoenix suburb.

It follows the Midwest vs. East game for third place at 11 a.m.

Because of COVID-19 conditions, no spectators (other than Compass Prep and Pangos staff, coaches and players, family and a few media members) will be in the building.

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LA GRANGE, IL – J.J. Taylor converted a lob pass from Kenwood Academy teammate Darrin Ames Jr. into a game-ending dunk to cap the Pangos All-Midwest Frosh/Soph Basketball Camp with a bang Sunday afternoon in the Park District sports facility in this Chicago suburb.

Taylor, a 6-foot-8 sophomore who attended Chicago Morgan Park as a freshman with the 6-1 Ames, scored his 28^th and 29 points of the Top 30 Cream of the Crop All-Star game in a “sudden-victory overtime” to give his team wearing white jerseys a 78-76 victory over its black jerseys-sporting counterparts.

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LA GRANGE, IL – Six-foot-eleven Baye Fall had a couple of quality opportunities Saturday to make an on-case statement as to why his supporters can claim he’s the No. 1 prospect in high school basketball’s national Class of 2023.

And he certainly made the most of both of them.

Fall (pictured) stood out – both literally and figuratively – among the 240 players who took part in the first day of the annual Pangos All-Midwest Frosh/Soph Camp at the Park District sports facility in this Chicago suburb.

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