Frank Burlison

PHOENIX – The first Basketball Hall of Fame Hoophall West is set to tip off Friday afternoon at Grand Canyon University at 4 o’clock MST.

Teams representing 13 schools, eight of those from Arizona, will participate including traditional prep powerhouses Mater Dei (from Santa Ana, CA) and Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, VA).

Mater Dei, led University of Arizona-bound Stanley Johnson, faces Houston Yates Saturday afternoon at 4.

Oak Hill, led by North Carolina State-bound twins Cody and Caleb Martin, plays twice: vs.

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CHICAGO – The Bellflower (CA) St. John Bosco team never found much of a way to defend center Jahlil Okafor and guard Miles Reynolds of its Chicago Whitney Young counterpart late Saturday night in the finale of the seven-game Chicago Elite Classic.

As it turned out, however, Whitney Young didn’t have a viable way of defending the deep shooting of Braves’ sophomore forward Vance Jackson.

And it didn’t have much of an answer for the last-second heroics of St. John Bosco senior guard Daniel Hamilton, either.

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CHICAGO – A plethora of potential McDonald’s All-Americans – in each of the of four classes – are expected to be on display during the seven-game, Chicago Elite Classic Saturday at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion.

Eight squads from Illinois, three from California and one a piece from Memphis, Nevada and Washington, DC are scheduled to participate.

The games are split into two sessions, the first beginning at 10 a.m. (CT) with Oak Park (IL) Fenwick facing Normal (IL) University, followed at 11:30 by Chicago St.

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NEWARK, Ca. – The headlining act going into the seventh NorCal Tip-Off Classic lived up to the pre-event hyperbole Saturday night in the Newark Memorial High gymnasium.

Ivan Rabb and his Oakland Bishop O’Dowd teammates broke out to a 14-zip advantage and then pretty much exchanged transition buckets the rest of the way en route to a 90-76 victory over Fresno Bullard in the seventh and final game of 11-hour event.

Rabb, on any short list that can be drudged up of the very best prospects in the national high school class of 2015, played with the ease of dominance of a dad playing Nerf Ball with his eight- and six-year-old sons, scoring 28 points (while hitting 13 of 17 shots; none of them jump shots to my recollection), grabbing 15 rebounds, blocking four shots and passing for two more buckets.

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REDONDO BEACH, Ca. – The St. John Bosco Braves may yet prove to be the best basketball team in California.

But, on Friday afternoon, they weren’t the best team in their semifinal of the 62nd Pacific Shores Tournament at Redondo High.

Despite a building a lead that once reached 13 points, the Braves couldn’t cope with the overall quickness and determination of the much-smaller Mayfair Monsoons, 60-56.

After struggling in the first half, Ocean View transfers Dillon Reise and Kendall Small scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Monsoons with all of Reise’s points coming in the second half.

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