Frank Burlison

ORANGE, Ca. – Rancho Christian High’s Evan Mobley strapped on the tool belt over the Memorial Weekend and did a nice job of reminding those who showed up at Orange Lutheran just how good a basketball player he is.

  And, at the same time, he and his buddies demonstrated that the Compton Magic Elite 17s squad is in no hurry to abdicate its 2018 status as the best club on the adidas Gauntlet circuit – or anywhere else, for that matter.

   Mobley led the squad to eight wins in as many games in that event that began Friday night, wrapping up things Monday afternoon with a gritty 53-48 over a gifted Dream Vision NEXT club that has a roster chock-full of top-notch players from the Class of 2021.

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ORANGE – The semifinals are set for the top three divisions’ brackets for Monday’s wrap-up of the four-day, Magic Memorial/adidas Gauntlet Regional Qualifier at Orange Lutheran High.

  The semis in the 17U BattleZONE bracket tip off at 12:20 p.m., with the Compton Magic Elite squad facing Basketball Training Institute (BTI/based in the San Fernando Valley) on Court 1 and Dream Vision NEXT taking on Team Harden of Arizona on Court 2.

   The title game is scheduled for 2:30 on Court 1.

   Compton Magic is led by Rancho Christian stalwart Evan Mobley and has also gotten tremendous play over the past three days from Dalen Terry (Hillcrest in Phoenix/PICTURED), Jaylen Clark (Corona Centennial/expected to transfer to Etiwanda) and Yassine Gharram of Foothills Christian El Cajon.

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ORANGE – Orange Lutheran High is the focal point for the four-day, Magic Memorial Weekend Tournament that tips off Friday evening at 5 o’clock.

   Hosting by the Compton Magic program, the event will be highlighted on Friday and Saturday by three eight-team “BattleCup Boost mini-tournaments” in the 17s, 16s and 15s divisions.

   The top two seeds in the 17s division are the adidas Gauntlet powerhouses in the Compton Magic Elite and unbeaten (over eight games played in Irvine and Dallas) Dream Vision.

   The Compton squad is led by 7-foot Rancho Christian junior Evan Mobley, the No.

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  LONG BEACH, Ca. – There’s nothing like a Dinos Trigonis-fronted Pangos event to get one back into the prep hoops swing of things after spending 10 days in London and still going 1-on-1 with jetlag . . .

   Six games were played Saturday during the Pangos “Best of SoCal Spring Showcase” that was held in the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church gymnasium, with healthy doses of the best Southern California has to offer in the Classes of 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

  Here we go, working backwards in the way the games were played (they began with eighth graders at noon, and wrapped up, about six hours later, with juniors):

   Representing the Class of 2020 (current juniors), in two games, were some already well-known (to folks like myself, as well as Devin Ugland and Ronnie Flores, also in attendance from start-to-finish, and a whole bunch of college coaches across the country) lads such as Keith Dinwiddie (an all-L.A.

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  CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – Only four of the league’s 40 teams got through the first Elite Youth Basketball League session unbeaten as play wrapped up Sunday afternoon in the Lakepoint Sporting Community Champions Center.

  The Texas Titans, Alabama Fusion, Indy Heat and The Family (based in Michigan) each went 4-0 and 12 others lost just once.

  The second session will be played May 10-12 in Indianapolis with the third two weekends later in Dallas.

   EYBL competition concludes with the Peach Jam, July 10-14 in North Augusta, SC.

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