FAB 50 No. 26 Timpview (Provo, Utah) advances to the Platinum Division title game of the 2025 Tarkanian Classic with a hard-fought 61-59 victory over No. 29 Santa Margarita (Rancho S.M., Calif.) behind the play of BYU-bound Dean Rueckert. The Tigers will meet Redondo Union (Redondo Beach, Calif.) in Tuesday’s 4:30 pm (PT) title game after that FAB 50 bubble club downed Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks, Calif.), 78-68. In the Nike Division, La Mirada (Calif.) will battle Lone Peak (Highland, Utah).
2025 @TarkClassic Images: 2026 SJ Madison (Redondo Union/Redondo Beach CA) & 2027 NaVorro Bowman (Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks CA) in @Crocs Division Semi-Finals at @orleansarena today pic.twitter.com/8ovHe2ANhA
— Dinos Trigonis (@trigonis30) December 23, 2025
The team at Santa Margarita in South Orange County, Calif. had two close calls in its first two games at the 2025 Tarkanian Classic and came out on the winning end. The Eagles, ranked No. 29 in the latest FAB 50 National Rankings, took on the highest ranked team in the Platinum Division field in No. 26 Timpview (Provo, Utah) and once again was in a nail-biting affair. Against a team as talented as Timpview, Santa Margarita simply couldn’t hold off the unbeaten club after holding a late lead and fell, 61-59, on Monday afternoon at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Santa Margarita (13-2) had a 10-point lead early and led 42-34 with 10 minutes remaining in the contest after a conventional 3-point play by Washington St.-bound forward Brayden Kyman. In the second half, it felt as the game would come down to the wire and Timpview eventually cut into its deficit. With 4:40 remaining, Timpview (11-0) finally caught the Eagles on a lay-up by BYU-bound big man Will Openshaw that made the score 53-52. From there, the game went back and forth until unbeaten Timpview finally took control on a lay-up by senior guard Mason Ford with 29 seconds remaining to give the Tigers a 61-56 lead.
With 19 seconds remaining, Santa Margarita guard Kaiden Bailey (21 points) made two free throws to cut his team’s deficit back to three. With Timpview leading 61-58, Ford missed two free throws and the Tigers chose to foul up three. Bailey made the first, but on the second Santa Margarita got a rebound and had a point blank shot, but it was blocked by Openshaw and in the scrum, BYU-bound Dean Rueckert came up with the rebound. Incredibly, he missed both free throws after he was fouled, but Bailey’s half court heave in the closing seconds was off as Timpview advanced.
Missed free throws (5-of-11) were about the only thing Rueckert didn’t do well, as the bouncy forward with a sweet shooting stroke helped his team get back in the game and has been spectacular in three victories. He went for 27 points, including four 3-pointers, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots. Through three games, Rueckert is averaging 26.3 ppg. Ford added 13 points and seven rebounds.
Timpview went 3-1 in last year’s tournament after losing a quarterfinal contest to eventual runner-up Notre Dame and will look to become the first team from Utah to win the event’s most prestigious division.
Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) was denied a second consecutive trip to the Platinum Division final when it fell to Redondo Union (Redondo Beach, Calif.), 78-68, in the earlier semifinal contest. Redondo Union is another team similar to Timpview eager to get to the winner’s circle after losing in last year’s semifinals to eventual champion Roosevelt (Eastvale, Calif.). Redondo Union is also eager to show its a FAB 50 ranked caliber club after breaking into the rankings in the first regular season update, only to fall out in the latest edition.
Redondo Union (10-2) jumped out to a 7-0 lead and eventually got up, 25-12, on a 3-pointer by senior Devin Wright (16 points) and never trialed in the game. The big difference in the contest was Redondo Union’s physicality and effort on the boards. The Sea Hawks out-rebounded Notre Dame, 40-26, and had an incredible 17 offensive rebounds to Notre Dame’s five. Leading the charge on the boards was Nevada-bound guard S.J. Madison and junior power forward Chris Sanders. The power duo combined for 10 offensive rebounds, as Madison finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Sanders had 16 and nine rebounds, including six of the offensive end.
Notre Dame (8-3) gave a valiant effort and it seemed as the Blue Knights trialed by six points for a majority of the second half, but were never able to get over the hump because of the foul trouble that saddled San Diego St.-bound Zach White, the team’s best rebounder and most physical defender. He played 22 minutes and finished with 12 points. The team’s leader and most dynamic talent, junior point guard NaVorro Bowman Jr., had 22 points in defeat, many of the spectacular variety around the rim.
Nike Division: Lone Peak, La Mirada Advance
It was a case of too much Gene Roebuck in the Nike Division (second highest classification) seminal matchup between La Mirada and San Gabriel Academy, two of the better teams from Southern California in this year’s Tarkanian Classic field. The highly-regarded junior wing with a penchant for scoring in a variety of ways just continued to punish SGA’s defensive front whenever that club tried to mount a comeback in La Mirada’s eventual 66-53 victory.
Roebuck hit a 3-pointer to make it 51-40 with 8:36 remaining and got to the charity stripe plenty of times throughout the game. Roebuck finished with 29 points of 8-of-12 shooting and made 11-of-16 free throws for La Mirada (6-4). The Mats got up as much as 14 points in the second half and San Gabriel Academy only led once by two points early in the contest.
Highly-regarded junior forward Mahamadou Diop led San Gabriel Academy (4-5) with 14 points and eight rebounds.
La Mirada will look to defeat its second club from Utah in the Nike winner’s bracket after downing Layton (Utah) in the quarterfinals, 74-67. Utah teams will look to capture titles in the top two divisions of the event after Lone Peak defeated Desert Pines (Las Vegas, Nev.) in the other semifinal contest under hard-to-believe circumstances, 79-76, in double overtime.
Desert Pines (8-1) gave away its unbeaten season twice by fouling when it should have not and allowing an offensive rebound put back field goal to tie the game with under .5 seconds on each occasion. The first time happened at the end of regulation and the second at the end of the first overtime.
Desert Pines led 63-61 with .4 seconds remaining when Lone Peak's Saxton Young was fouled in a situation where he wasn’t in position to get off a good field goal attempt. He missed the first and purposely missed the second, but teammate Camden Broadhead was able to make a bank shot in front of the rim as Lone Peak scored at the buzzer. In overtime, the circumstances were even more incredible. Skyler Andreoli was fouled on a 3-pointer with his team trialing 70-67. He made one free throw and on the third one with .3 seconds remaining, the miss was tipped waist high falling down by Jayden Hughes (16 points) as the Orleans Crowd couldn’t believe the circumstances in which the game continued.
Lone Peak (7-5) proceeded to score the first six points of the second overtime to pull out the improbable victory and set up the 1:30 pm (PT) date with La Mirada on Tuesday afternoon at Bishop Gorman High School.
The Platinum Division contest will take place at 4:30 pm (PT).
Talented junior Crew Fotheringham led Lone Peak with 21 points. Desert Pines was led by sophomore wing Aaron McMorran II with 30 points and 11 rebounds.
Ronnie Flores is the national Grassroots editor of Ballislife.com. He can be reached at [email protected]. Don't forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores
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