Frank Burlison

LA VERNE, Ca. – So, do you want to get an up-close-and-personal look at some of the best backicourt prospects in the western high school Class of 2021?

Take a day, or two, or three or – if you really want a close-to-definitive perspective on the top – four and check out the fourth The Classic at Damien, set for Dec. 26, 27, 28&30.

There are bundles of them in the top two divisions (Platinum and Gold) of the five-division, 80-team event.

Because of NCAA rules, coaches can’t attend high school or community college tournaments on Dec.

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LAS VEGAS – The Platinum Championship trophy made have made the trip back to Corona in multiple shards of glass.

But that was the only example of slippage – courtesy the trophy presentation after knocking off host Bishop Gorman, 71-55, Saturday evening – for Coach Josh Giles’ Centennial squad after four days of nothing short of superb play during the eighth annual Tarkanian Classic.

The Huskies (10-2) handed three nationally ranked squads their first losses this week – Philadelphia Neumann Goretti Wednesday afternoon (followed Thursday afternoon by a 35-point victory against, Durango, which it beat in Pasadena on Dec.

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LAS VEGAS – The Corona (CA) Centennial and Bishop Gorman programs used different approaches Friday in the Orleans Hotel Arena in an attempt to get to Saturday’s Platinum Division championship game in the Tarkanian Classic.

Both succeeded.

The Centennial Huskies (9-2), under Coach Josh Giles, continued to make a mockery of the tag “undergo” while holding off Santa Ana Mater Dei, 63-53, in the first of those Friday semifinals.

And Coach Grant Rice’s Bishop Gorman team put itself into position to complete the program’s defense of the division championship while rallying (from five points down with a bit more than 2 1/2 minutes to play) to knock off two-time, California Open Division runner-up Sacramento Sheldon, 75-66.

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LAS VEGAS – Sixteen teams earned “trips” Thursday to the Orleans Hotel Arena for Friday semifinals in four divisions of the Tarkanian Classic.

And I use the term “trips” quite loosely, because the Orleans is where the players, coaches and family of the bulk of the teams in the Grant Rice/Dinos Trigonis-fronted event are staying this week, with Bishop Gorman serving as the “host school” and primary games’ site.

The Platinum (in this case, like most hoops’ tournaments, meaning best) Division provide the most compelling of the semifinals, with a Southern California Showdown of sorts in the Corona Centennial-Santa Ana Mater Dei clash at 4 o’clock and the host Gaels – the event’s defending champions – facing Northern California powerhouse Sacramento Sheldon at 5:30.

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LAS VEGAS – The Southern California-based programs were 5-zip during Wednesday’s first-round action in the Platinum Division of the Tarkanian Classic at Bishop Gorman High.

Two of those squads got stunning deep-range shooting efforts to advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal action:

*Corona Centennial (7-2) continued its string of “upsets”, knocking off the top-ranked team from Pennsylvania in Philadelphia Neumann Goretti, 68-64, as freshman guard Jared McCain (pictured) buried eight 3s – seven after intermission – while scoring 30 points.

*And San Diego State-bound guard Keith Dinwiddie knocked in seven shots from behind the arc while continuing the sizzling start to his senior season as L.A.

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