Frank Burlison

LAS VEGAS – The Bishop Gorman Gaels took another step Thursday night toward winning their first championship in the high-profile tournament they’ve hosted for four years.

The Gaels got a performance that was equal parts clutch and spectacular from Charles O’Bannon Jr. to hold off last year’s champion in the top (Platinum) division, Redondo Beach (CA) Redondo, 63-58.

The win moved Coach Grant Rice’s squad into a Friday night (5:30/PT) semifinal against Weston (FL) Sagemont in the Orleans Hotel Arena.

Sagemont knocked off Plano (TX) Prestonwood Christian Academy, 68-61, in the final Platinum quarterfinal played in Bishop Gorman’s main (big) gymnasium Thursday night.

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LAS VEGAS – The 16-team Platinum Bracket is the features the best of the best among the high school programs in the fourth Tarkanian Classic.

And Wednesday’s opening round of eight games set the stage for what could be some terrific quarterfinal match-ups Thursday at Bishop Gorman High.

The championship bracket games begin at noon (PT) with St. Petersburg (FL) Dillard vs. Aurora (CO) Overland in the main (big) gymnasium with Corona (CA) Centennial and South Jordan (UT) Bingham following at 1:20.

The other two quarterfinals at 5:20, with Bishop Gorman taking on Redondo Beach (CA) Redondo Union, with Plano (TX) Prestonwood Christian Academy facing Weston (FL) Sagemont at 6:40.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – The end of the third week of the high school hoops season found only the most negligible of alteration to the BurlisonOnBasketball Top 15 Southern California team ratings.

A loss to L.A. Washington at the buzzer of a Beverly Hills Tournament semifinal by Orange Lutheran cleared a path for a newcomer into this week’s Top 15.

And Woodland Hills Taft – playing without four “30-day sit-outs” – took full advantage by going 4-0 at Beverly Hills (toppling Washington in the Saturday night finale, 65-45, behind the play of sophomore point guard Kihei Clark, the event’s Most Outstanding Player).

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – There was only the slightest of tweaking near the top of the second BurlisonOnBasketball 2015-16 Southern California prep team rankings.

And the top-ranked team remained just as firmly entrenched at No. 1.

Chino Hills’ point guard-supreme Lonzo Ball, his two younger brothers, a first cousin and some other gifted teammates averaged 108.4 points while sprinting past five opponents in a very tough “The Battle Zone” Tournament at Corona Centennial High last week.

Sliding up a spot to No. 2 are Coach Doug Mitchell’s Bishop Montgomery Knights, by way of their capturing the Trevor Ariza Tourney at L.A.

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CHICAGO – Saturday’s second day of the fourth Chicago Elite Classic in the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion covered six games and nine-plus hours – and a healthy helping of impressive individual performances, a stunning sequence to send a game into overtime and an over-powering team effort.

In order, those were:

*Six-foot-seven Duke-bound St. Louis Chaminade High’s Jayson Tatum more than “stuffed” a stat line:

He choked it.

Tatum, conservatively one of the three best players in the Class of 2016, scored 40 points with 11 rebounds, seven assists (and six turnovers), three blocked shots and two steals to help his team win in overtime over Lithonia (GA) Miller Grove, 86-77.

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