It’s still the Orange Holiday Classic, although it’s not played in Orange and Orange isn’t in it.
Orange is not playing in this week’s Orange Holiday Classic, the tournament for which Orange has been host for decades, at Hope International University in Fullerton. Temecula Valley asked to be included in the 16-team tournament, so Orange stepped aside to make room for Temecula Valley.
Two teams ranked in the O.C. top 10, No. 3 Esperanza and No. 4 Edison, are in opposite halves of the tournament. The tournament’s championship game is Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at Hope, the site of all of the tournament’s games.
Hope has been the Orange Holiday Classic’s home for the past few years. Returning the tournament to its former home, Chapman University, is being pursued, according to Orange principal Dennis McCuistion.
Jump stops around Orange County boys basketball:
• The Tustin Holiday Classic is at Tustin High through Thursday. Among the teams in it are Foothill, San Clemente and Clovis West of Fresno. The tournament championship game is at Tustin on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
• The Leon Davis Classic is at Whittier Christian through Thursday. Buena Park, winner of the Coyote Classic earlier this month, is in that one.
• Basketball players who transferred but did not make a change of residence, or are under other conditions that kept them from being eligible at the beginning of the season, will be eligible to play beginning Jan. 2. That’s the expiration date for the 30-day sit-out period required of some transfers.
• Among the more notable sit-out period players to become eligible is Joel Mensah, a 6-foot-10 junior at JSerra. He was at Redemption Christian High in Massachusetts last school year.
• Villa Park’s Caleb Banuelos, Julien Franklin and Myles Franklin made the Tarkanian Classic all-tournament team.
• The O.C. top 10 is voted upon by five media members. Taking those top 10 results, and making it a top 25, here is how this writer would rank teams 11-25: 11. JSerra; 12. Capistrano Valley; 13. Cypress; 14. El Toro; 15. Tesoro; 16. Corona del Mar; 17. Crean Lutheran; 18. Foothill; 19. Woodbridge; 20. Laguna Beach; 21. Huntington Beach; 22. San Clemente; 23. Ocean View; 24. Yorba Linda; 25. Godinez.
• North teams won six of the 11 games in the Orange County North/South Challenge at El Toro last week.
• Day 1 results at the North/South Challenge: Valencia (north) defeated Laguna Hills; Woodbridge (north) defeated Laguna Beach; Trabuco Hills (south) defeated Northwood; Huntington Beach (north) defeated Aliso Niguel; and Los Alamitos (north) defeated Capistrano Valley.
• Day 2 results at the North/South Challenge: Saddleback Valley Christian (south) defeated Pacifica Christian; San Clemente (south) defeated Westminster; Dana Hills (south) defeated Orangewood Academy; Godinez (north) defeated San Juan Hills; Tesoro (south) defeated El Dorado; and Cypress (north) defeated El Toro.
• A player of the game was selected for the North/South games. They were: Diego Noffal, Valencia; Ty Calhoun, Woodbridge; Chase Anderson, Trabuco Hills; Dean Vis, Huntington Beach; Joseph Riley, Los Alamitos; Trey Smith, Saddleback Valley Christian; Blake Birmingham, San Clemente; Devan Garland, Dana Hills; Ramon Lopez-Felix, Godinez; Justin McCallop, Tesoro; Eric Papke, Cypress.
• Papke plays water polo at Cypress during the falls, basketball during the winter and volleyball during the spring season of sport.
• CIF-Southern Section preseason rankings are at cifss.org. The first in-season poll is released on Jan. 9.
Contact the writer: sfryer@scng.com
