HORACE LANGFORD JR. Darius Dolly is the point guard for the Pahrump Valley High School boys' basketball team, which is one of the hosts for the Times Trojans Cage Classic being played today and Saturday. DON MCDERMOTT / PVT Frank Lopez is at 285 pounds for the Pahrump Valley wrestling team which competes at Sierra Vista High School in Las Vegas today and Saturday. Advertisement

For Pahrump Valley's wrestling and boys and girls basketball teams, this will be a big weekend ... period.

Coach Craig Rieger's wrestlers, 8-0 in their first two tournaments, are in the prestigious Sierra Vista Duals, which annually has some of the top teams from California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada compete in a two-day mat marathon. The Trojans start the action at 4 p.m. today, with two duals on the schedule determining who they will be taking on in the championship rounds Saturday (9 a.m.).

The basketball teams are hosting the Pahrump Valley Times Trojans Cage Classic, which started Thursday and will conclude Saturday, when the bracket rounds start at 8 a.m.

Another 12 games will be played today, in the wake of 12 contests on the schedule Thursday. The Ninth Grade Academy and Rosemary Clarke Middle School gyms are being used, since the main high school court is being replaced. That floor was damaged during a rainstorm in September; when that project will be completed is anybody's guess.

Pahrump Valley's boys were to play Las Vegas Mountain View Christian Monday and Amargosa Valley Horizon Academy Wednesday, but both games were canceled. The Mountain View game wasn't on the Saints' schedule and construction of the Horizon Academy gym reportedly has not yet been completed.

So, coach Lonnie Shereck's team went into the tournament Thursday with a 3-3 record. Two of the losses were inflicted by Nevada Class A power Lake Mead Christian Academy, with the third to 2-A Las Vegas The Meadows.

Coach Bob Hopkins' girls, the Times defending champions, went 5-0 to win the Pepsi Shootout at River Valley, Ariz. The Lady Trojans Trojans outscored the opposition by an average of 50.6 to 25.6 per game.

Senior guard Brittany Orr fired in 9 of 18 3-point field goal attempts in the five games and is averaging 7.2 ppg. Megan Meads, one of five post players on the roster, is averaging 11.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

The three freshmen on the varsity roster -- Alyson Kunzi, Ashley Lindgren and Casey Scheller -- have combined for 38 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and 14 steals in five games.

Junior post Kristi Daffer has scored 9.2 points per game and is averaging 6.8 boards an outing.

The teams to beat in both the boys and girls Times tournaments are the Las Vegas Bishop Gorman junior varsity squads. Gorman is in the Class 4-A Sunset Region Southwest Division, where Pahrump Valley will be competing in the 2008-2009 school year.

Girls teams from Las Vegas Faith Lutheran, Boulder City and Lincoln County figure to be in the title chase. Boys contenders include Amargosa Valley Horizon Academy, as well as the Trojans and Gorman's Gaels.

The format for the Times tournament could change in the 2008-2009 season, because of Pahrump Valley's move to Class 4-A.

"We don't have the basketball schedule yet, but it's possible we could be playing league games this same weekend next season," said Bob Hopkins, the girls' basketball coach and interim athletics director at PVHS. The corresponding dates in 2008 are Dec. 4-5-6.

This is the sixth season the Times has sponsored the Trojans' Classic, which has been on the school's schedule for more than a decade.