HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Tyler True of Pahrump Valley shoots against visiting Pahranagat Valley Alamo Friday, in the Trojans' 63-54 win, at the Ninth Grade Academy. Advertisement

How to Spend the Holidays: Prep Basketball style, as presented by Pahrump Valley.

While their classmates enjoy the Christmas-New Year's break, the Trojan boys and girls will be on the road, competing in major holiday tournaments.

In their last two trips to major out-of-town regular-season tournaments, the Pahrump Valley boys have won five of seven games -- with both losses in championship showdowns (at Winnemucca Lowry in 2005 and Bishop, Calif, in 2006).

Coach Lonnie Shereck's team lost 59-55 to host Lowry in the finals in 2005; in 2006, Hesperia, Calif., defeated Pahrump Valley 77-63 for the Bishop title.

Pahrump Valley will try to at least duplicate that effort in the 30th annual Christmas Classic at Bishop Thursday through Saturday.

Pahrump Valley, 10-6, will play Arcada, Calif., Rio Hondo, 6-3, at 3 p.m. Thursday to open the tournament.

On Friday, the Trojans face Lone Pine, Calif., 4-5, at 1 p.m., and in the feature game at 8:30, they will battle Bishop, 3-4.

Rio Hondo, a prep school in Arcadia, started the season losing back-to-back games to Sherman Oaks Buckley (69-34) and Canoga Park Faith Baptist (69-61). Since then, coach Ken Drain's team has won six of seven games against primarily private-school opponents.

The Kares include three seniors, includng 6-1 guard Ben Kamel and 6-1 forward Trevor Finchamp. Jack Lo is a 6-2 center.

Lone Pine's Eagles, coached by Payton Ray, lost 46-44 to Bishop and 60-44 to Dayton in their first two starts.

Six seniors are on the roster for the team out of the Desert Mountain League. David Jones, a 3-point threat, and Joseph Ruiz (the team's leading rebounder at 7.8 boards per game) are averaging 11.9 and 11.1 points per game, respectively.

Chris Munis plays sparingly, but he has hit 6-of-13 3-point attempts, and Jake Schill, a post, is averaging more than seven rebounds per game.

Seventh-, fifth-, third- and first-place games will be contested Saturday, starting at 10:30 a.m.

Also in the tournament are Class 4-A Elko (4-5), Nevada 3-A state runnerup Dayton (5-2), 2-A Mineral County Hawthorne (1-5) and Hesperia (7-2).

Junior varsity teams from Pahrump Valley, Rio Hondo, Bishop and Dayton will play a round-robin series Thursday through Saturday in the East gym, starting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday).

Dayton, coached by T.W. Cunningham, has Tanner Wood (6-4 junior guard) and Hans Meyer (6-5 senior center) back to lead the Dust Devils, who lost to Las Vegas Faith Lutheran in the state 3-A championship game last season.

Trojans split weekend games

The Pahrump Valley High School boys' basketball team rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat visiting Pahranagat Valley Alamo 63-54 in a non-league game Friday night.

Saturday, Dimarko Shoulders sank two free throws with 10 seconds left to lift Clark's Chargers to a 54-52 win, in Las Vegas. Clark is in the Class 4-A Sunset Region Southwest Division, which will include Pahrump Valley in the 2008-2009 school year.

Pahrump Valley, after it plays in the Bishop, Calif., tournament, will launch its final Southern Nevada Class 3-A League season Jan. 8 at defending state champion Las Vegas Faith Lutheran, and on Jan. 11, coach Lonnie Shereck's team will travel to Mesquite to play Virgin Valley.

Other league games will be played Jan. 19, home vs. Boulder City; Jan. 22, home vs. Overton Moapa Valley; Jan. 25, home vs. Faith Lutheran; Feb. 1, home vs. Virgin Valley; Feb. 5, at Boulder City, and Feb. 8, at Moapa Valley.

Pahrump Valley defeated Amargosa Valley Horizon Academy 73-36 Dec. 17, in a game originally slated to be for junior varsity teams. Darius Dolly had 15 points, while Tyler True and Trent Ward added 11 each for the Trojans. Ben Upton had 15 points for Horizon.

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Weekend boxscores:

FRIDAY

Alamo (54)

Hosier 18, Whipple 13, Hafen 12, Turley 6, Paulson 3, Higbee 2. Totals: 22 3-10 54.

PVHS (63)

Dolly 20, True 18, Weekly 10, Johnson 4, Ward 4, Fisher 4, Amburgey 3. Totals: 24 14-20 63.

Alamo 13 15 14 12 -- 54

PVHS 16 19 6 22 -- 63

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SATURDAY

PVHS (52)

Amburgey 6, Weekly 15, Dolly 4, Fisher 3, Johnson 6, True 10, Ward 4. Totals: 21 7-7 52.

Clark (54)

Garcia 23, Shoulders 8, Dancy 15, Toler 8. Totals: 20 11-16 54.

PVHS 12 9 10 21 -- 52

Clark 7 13 13 21 -- 54