Frank Burlison

  NEWARK, Ca. – The seventh annual Nor Cal Tip-Off Classic, a seven-game affair, gets underway Saturday morning at 11 o’clock at Newark Memorial High.

The school’s campus is located at 39375 Cedar Boulevard.

Headlining the field is Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, led by its terrific 6-foot-9 junior Ivan Rabb.

The Dragons take on one of the best teams in Fresno, Bullard, with a schedule 8:30 p.m. tipoff.

The complete schedule:

  11 a.m., Fairfield vs. Castro Valley; 12:30 p.m., Pleasant Hill College Park vs. Stockton St. Mary’s; 2:15, Brentwood Heritage vs.

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  Action in two of the better pre-Christmas high school tournaments in the west continues today in Redondo Beach and Corona.

  PACIFIC SHORES

At Redondo High

  Loser’s bracket consolation: (both auxiliary gym) Noon, Peninsula vs. Morningside; 1:30, Palos Verdes vs. Rolling Hills Prep.

Fifth-place semifinals: (both main gym) 12:30, Long Beach Millikan vs. Compton; 2, Campbell Hall vs. Long Beach Poly.

Consolation semifinals: (both main gym) 5, Pacific Hills vs. Lawndale; 6:30, Calabasas vs. Narbonne.

Championship semifinals: (both main gym) 3:30, St. John Bosco vs. Mayfair; 8, Westchester vs.

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CORONA, Ca. – Both the host Corona Centennial Huskies and the Etiwanda Eagles demonstrated they are very good teams during the first two days of the second Tip-Off at the Empire Invitational.

The tag to that sentence, of course, is: “As if anyone who follows high school basketball in Southern California didn’t know that already”.

OK, but just how good are the teams coached by Josh Giles and Dave Kleckner, respectively?

The Huskies (83-24 over Bakersfield East) and Eagles (61-47 over a game- and 3-point-shooting Great Oak squad) each improved to 2-zip Wednesday night and, minus stunners Friday – when the Huskies take on Fresno Central and Etiwanda tangles with Ranch Verde – should hook up in the championship game Saturday night at 7:45.

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REDONDO BEACH, Ca. – Each of the 62^nd Pacific Shores Tournament championship quarterfinals played Tuesday at Redondo Union High was reasonably competitive – even if none of them proved to be down-to-the-wire affairs.

Top three seeds St. John Bosco (over Long Beach Millikan), Los Angeles Westchester (over Long Beach Poly) and host Redondo (over North Hollywood Campbell Hall) prevailed by 14, 12 and eight points, respectively Tuesday.

Only fifth seed Lakewood Mayfair (over fourth seed Compton, 75-66) provided an element of “surprise” to Tuesday’s proceedings.

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REDONDO BEACH, Ca. – Six favorites advanced with relative ease, while two more teams had a rougher go of it before advancing to the championship quarterfinals of the 62^nd Pacific Shores Tournament in the opening Monday night of the Southern California high school hoops season Monday night at Redondo Union High.

Top-seed St. John Bosco (84-35 over Palos Verdes, with a running clock in the fourth quarter), No. 2 Westchester (69-41 over Peninsula), host and three-seed Redondo (76-39 over Morningside) and four-seed Compton (74-66 over Narbonne) advanced to the Tuesday’s quarters by an average margin of victory of 30.5 points.

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