Frank Burlison

LAS VEGAS – The No.’s 2, 3 and 5 boys’ basketball teams in Southern California cruised to first-round wins in the Platinum Division Wednesday at Bishop Gorman during the first day of the Tarkanian Classic.

Eastlake Roosevelt (No. 2 in this week’s BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30) started things off as Brayden Burries hit five 3s in the first quarter against San Diego St. Augustine, and the final eight minutes were played in running clock-mode, 79-36.

Guards Issac Williamson and Myles Walker were whistled for a couple of fouls apiece in the opening minutes but the Saints were all but helpless in defending Burries – which has often been the case this season for teams trying to check him.

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LAS VEGAS – Bishop Gorman High will be the “epicenter”, of sorts, for Southern California high school boys basketball this week.

The “traditional high schools” portion of this week’s Tarkanian Classic is set to tip Wednesday afternoon.

And the event’s top (Platinum) 16-team division includes the No.’s 2 (Roosevelt), 3 (Notre Dame), 5 (Redondo Union), 11 (St. Pius X/St. Matthias Academy), 21 (Campbell Hall) and 25 (Centennial) in the updated BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal ratings.

Rounding out that division are two other California programs, L.A. Westchester and San Diego St.

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LEHI, UTAH – Less than 24 hours after holding on to win in its toughest test of the season, the Harvard-Westlake High boys basketball team ran into figurative “buzzsaw” early Saturday evening at Lehi High on the final day of the Holiday Hoopfest.

And it came in the form of a Timpview squad that had been limited to 39 points Friday night on its homecourt in Provo, in a three-point loss to another Utah-based program, Layton Christian Academy.

But eight on-court minutes into their game with California’s two-time defending State Open Division champion, the Thunderbirds had blasted the Wolverines’ usually stout perimeter defense for seven 3s – the last of those on a release from near mid-court by Mason Ford which went thru the rim at the buzzer sounded for a 12-point advantage.

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LEHI, Utah –  Utah’s defending state (6A) boys’ basketball team, and another squad that is the current No. 1 in the state, suffered 26- and 13-point defeats to Texas-based opponents on Friday’s first full day of the Holiday Hoopfest at Lehi High.

And, in the last of the six boys games played Friday, California’s two-time State Open Division champion picked off a pass in the final seconds  to secure a 57-54 win in its first “real test” in its ninth game this season.

Action begins at 9 o’clock (MT) Saturday morning, when a nine-game slate (three of those girls’) gets underway when Fort Worth Eastern Hills faces Draper (UT) Corner Canyon.

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LONG BEACH – A year ago at this time,  Jaden Erami and Kayleb Kearse were the best players on the Bosco Tech and Serra high school boys basketball teams.

Tuesday night, at St. Anthony High, they helped the St. Pius X/St. Matthias Academy program pull out a huge win against one of its biggest roadblocks to another Del Rey League championship.

Erami (a 6-foot-1 senior) nailed a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to put the game into overtime, and then he and Kearse (a 5-9 junior) put the finishing touches on the Warriors’  88-85 decision against the host Saints.

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