DON McDERMOTT / PVT Bob Hopkins, the girls’ basketball coach and interim athletics director at Pahrump Valley High School, walks across the barren gym floor, where the wood surface has to be replaced because of water damage. The repairs may not be done in time for the boys’ opener Nov. 27 against Lake Mead Christian Academy and the Times Trojans Cage Classic Dec. 6-7-8. Times tournament pairings Advertisement

The Pahrump Valley Times Trojans Cage Classic will go on as scheduled Dec. 6-7-8, but the scene of the action could be changed.

Because the floor in the main gymnasium in the PVHS building is being replaced, some Classic games will be shifted to the Ninth Grade Academy court. And some games in the Academy gym will be played at Rosemary Clarke Middle School.

"We'll know about a week in advance whether we will be able to play in the high school gym," said Hopkins. The floor was damaged by floods, caused by the heavy rains last month. A drainage system failure reportedly caused water to back up into the gym, instead of going down street-level drains.

A record 16 teams are entered in the sixth tournament sponsored by the Times. The Classic itself has been a regular feature on the PVHS basketball schedule for many more seasons.

Ten girls and six boys teams are entered in the tournament; each will play three preliminary games Dec. 6-7. Those games are designed to help a committee seed all 16 teams for single-elimination bracket tournaments Dec. 8.

The girls teams are Bishop, (Calif.), Beatty, the Las Vegas Bishop Gorman Junior Varsity, Boulder City, Las Vegas Faith Lutheran, Lincoln County, Round Mountain, Las Vegas Trinity Christian, Tonopah and host Pahrump Valley.

In the boys tournament along with the Trojans, will be Beatty, the Gorman JVs, Henderson International School, Round Mountain and Amargosa Valley Horizon Academy.

Each team is guaranteed four games (three in the preliminary rounds and at least one in bracket play) over the three-day run of the tournament.

Seeding for the bracket tournaments will be determined by four factors: won-loss records, head-to-head record, least points allowed, and at the discretion of the tournament committee.

The Gorman JVs were runnersup in the 2003 tournament, bowing 56-42 to the PVHS varsity. Several BG players on that squad were on the Gaels' team that won the 2007 state Class 4-A title.

Pahrump Valley's girls have won four of the last five Times titles. Las Vegas The Meadows boys won the 2006 title, but will not be back to defend its championship.

The format and dates for future Times tournaments will be affected by the shift of Pahrump Valley to Class 4-A, starting with the 2008-2009 school year. Class 4-A teams play home-and-home series in most sports, which means PVHS will play 16 division games each season.

That will limit the number of dates for non-league and/or regular-season tournament contests.