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SPRINGFIELD, MA – There have been trips to Texas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and, finally, — with the nationally televised 66-62 victory over Camden of New Jersey Saturday night in the Spalding HoopHall Classic – Massachusetts.

And there were “in-state, road trips” to San Diego and Sacramento.

But the “barn-storming”, of sorts, isn’t quite over for Coach Josh Giles’ Corona Centennial basketball team.

“We’ve got to go to northern California next week (Saturday, for a game against Richmond Salesian in a multi-game event),” said Giles, after his team improved to 17-3 with the victory, over the team led by University of Kentucky recruits D.J.

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LA VERNE, CA – It’s taken a while for me to compile this list – the 112-team, five-day Classic at Damien ended on the night of Dec. 30, after all.

But, instead of labeling it procrastination, I prefer to call it well-thought out and reasoned analysis.

  Cool the smirks . . .

Anyway, here are my choices for the 13 players who most impressed me when I watched them play during the top “real high school” post-holiday tournament in the west.

First, the caveats:

*My selections came only from among the players I was able to watch from courtside.

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MISSION VIEJO, CA – If were wondering how many times the outcome of a basketball game can hang in the final 3.5 seconds of regulation, you’ve now a pretty good clue – assuming you were among those in the Capistrano Valley High gymnasium Wednesday night.

Eventually, the host Cougars prevailed over Tesoro, 62-60, with the aid of a four-minute overtime in the South Coast league boys’ opener.

Seniors Efe Gucoglu (a second-year exchange student from Turkey) and Jackson Gray – who, with his brother, Blake, was once enrolled at Tesoro – scored 22 and 21 points, respectively, as Coach Brian Mulligan’s team improved its overall record to 13-4.

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SANTA ANA, CA – “Momentum”, in sports (like pretty much in every other aspect of life), can be fickle.

Tuesday night, in a Crestview League boys basketball game at Foothill High, it was down-right abrupt in its switch of allegiance.

The host Knights – having doubled the score on visiting Villa Park Spartans – had already gone 10-deep in substitutes as the fourth quarter began with multiple reserves on the floor.

But the Spartans, who had missed 20 of 29 shots from the floor and committed 13 turnovers over the first 24 minutes, finally started knocking in jump shots – with a few nifty drives mixed in.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – Five high-profile “showcase” events were held this past weekend, and each included at least a couple of the teams in the top 15ish range in the updated BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal team rankings.

The most notable of those, of course, was the eight-game Take Flight Challenge at Redondo Union.

It played host to the remarkable – and exhausting; even for those just watching game – game pitting No. 2 Harvard-Westlake and No. 3 Bishop Montgomery, pulled off by the former in three overtimes, 74-66.

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