DON McDERMOTT / PVT India Burke (3), a 5-foot-6 sophomore guard for Paramount, Calif., moves the ball upcourt against Pahrump Valley's Brittney Lindgren (30), Alyson Kunzi (20), and Ashley Lindgren (32) in the Pirates 67-57 victory Saturday, in the Las Vegas Classic at Centennial High School. DON McDERMOTT / PVT The ball bounces away from the Trojans' Megan Meads and Shelly Breaux of Lafayette (La.) St. Thomas More, in Pahrump Valley's 55-36 loss Thursday. Advertisement

The decline of the defense played by the Pahrump Valley High School girls' basketball team helped produce an interesting statistic last weekend.

Pahrump Valley has now played 30 games in six years at the girls' holiday tournament at Centennial High School. Saturday, the PV girls lost 67-57 to Paramount, Calif., which had been 0-4 in the tournament and had been outscored 231-153 in losses (to Las Vegas Silverado; Santa Fe Valley, Calif.; Carson and Durango).

The Trojans scored 57 points, which would have meant victory in 26 of their previous 29 starts in the Centennial tournament -- and would have won all but one of their previous 18 starts this season. In the Centennial tournament, Henderson Green Valley prevailed 61-34, while the other Trojan losses were to Lafayette (La.) St. Thomas More 55-36 and 47-33 to Reno Galena.

Pahrump Valley's victory was a 70-40 conquest of Las Vegas Chaparral, which went winless in five games.

The Lady Trojans fell to 14-5, having sustained all of those losses in their last seven starts. Coming up Friday is a visit from Hurricane, Utah, 8-3 this season, including a 53-43 win against Overton Moapa Valley.

Pahrump Valley played the Saturday game with Paul Brecht filling in for coach Bob Hopkins on the sidelines. Hopkins was given a gift of tickets to Green Bay's National Football League game against the Detroit Lions Sunday.

The loss to Paramount was the most difficult to accept, because the Californians had not scored more than 46 points in any of their first four starts. But India Burke, a 5-6 sophomore guard, scored 30 points and sparked a breakout rally in the third quarter, when Paramount fired in 11 of 13 shots from the field and produced a 52-41 lead, going into the final eight minutes.

Pahrump Valley starts Southern Nevada Class 3-A League play Tuesday at Las Vegas Faith Lutheran ... on Friday, the Trojans travel to Mesquite to battle Virgin Valley. The Faith girls are 9-6, while the Lady Bulldogs are 8-3.

NOTES -- Centennial won the tournament championship, going 6-0 and beating Galena 57-41 in the title game, avenging one of the two losses coach Karen Weitz's Bulldogs have sustained this season ... Centennial won in the semifinals (a 68-64 conquest of Gilbert, Ariz., Highland), while Galena advanced with a 61-46 rout of previously undefeated Durango ... Eagle River represented the state of Alaska in the tournament; the team played hard, but lacked the individual skills to be effective against superior opposition ... The most impressive team that didn't win a title and didn't even qualify for the semifinals was St. Thomas More; the Cougars' team work was exceptionally efficient ... The most impressive players? Palo Verde's Mikala Pride (5-8 senior guard) ... Galena's Langley Iverson (6-1 senior forward), Colleen Kern (5-4 senior guard) and Hayley Jensen (5-4 sophomore guard) ... Durango's Lindy LaRocque (a 5-9 senior guard headed for Stanford), who sank 15 3-point shots in back-to-back games Friday ...Highland's Morgan Wohltman, a 5-11 junior guard ... Centennial's Alexis Byrd (5-9 sophomore guard) and Johnna Brown (6-foot junior center) ... Green Valley's Victoria Naylor (5-6 senior guard) and Jazmine Jarvis (5-8 sophomore guard) ... Los Angeles Fairfax had a strong team, but a 42-34 loss to Highland knocked the Lady Lions out of contention.