Supreme team wins without pair

California Supreme opened the Reebok Summer Championships on Thursday without UCLA recruit Tyler Lamb or Southern California recruit Dwayne Polee Jr.

Their absence didn't seem to make much difference.

Supreme handed Dakota Schoolers (S.D.) a 71-60 loss in the quarterfinals of the Create-N-Finish Cup at Foothill High School.

"I think it's very encouraging," said Supreme guard Gary Franklin Jr., who had 13 points. "When (Lamb and Polee) come back, we'll be that much stronger."

The Supreme are among the favorites to win the mini-tournament, which features the top eight pre-seeded teams in the 136-team field.

They will play Playaz Basketball Club (N.J.) at 12:30 p.m. today for a trip to the 8 p.m. championship game. All games are at Foothill.

Supreme coach Gary Franklin Sr. said Lamb and Polee missed Thursday's game because of summer school. He expects them to arrive today.

"I'm not sure if they'll both get here by the first game, but definitely by the second one," he said.

Polee is the son of Dwayne Polee Sr., who played at UNLV in 1981 and 1982 before finishing his basketball career at Pepperdine.

"Defensively we're a lot better with Dwayne," Franklin Jr. said. "He can jump, block shots and create difficult shots for the offense."

Keala King, Kevin Johnson and Jamaal Franklin added 13 points each for the Supreme.

Franklin Jr., who will be a senior next fall at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., recently backed out of an oral commitment to USC. He said he's considering Washington, California, Stanford, Arizona State, Tennessee, Villanova, UCLA and Oklahoma.

In the other quarterfinals, Playaz Basketball Club beat MBA Elite (Miss.) 60-52, Texas Bluechips Navy edged D-One Sports (N.C.) 55-51 and Team Detroit routed the New York Panthers, 70-52.

Elsewhere at the Summer Championships, Palo Verde's Moses Morgan scored 13 points in I Can All-Stars' 102-88 win over the Houston Superstars and 14 in an 84-65 win over Texas Bluechips White.

Findlay Prep's Godwin Okonji scored 15 in Belmont Shore's 61-38 rout of Houston Elite Red.

• LOCAL TEAMS -- In the adidas Super 64, Bishop Gorman's Johnathan Loyd scored 24 points to carry the Las Vegas Prospects to an 87-80 win over Indiana Elite Red in a Super Pools game at Rancho.

The Prospects will open Championship Bracket play at 11:40 a.m. today at Rancho against an opponent to be determined.

Palo Verde's Davion Pearson scored 17 points and Desert Pines' Chris Perry 16 to lift Las Vegas Dogcatchers Elite to a 64-56 victory over the SF Rebels (Calif.) in pool play at Las Vegas High.

The Dogcatchers went 2-1 in their pool and open the 17s Gold Bracket against Colorado Select Blue at 3:40 p.m. today at Rancho.

Grassroots Canada Elite, which features Findlay Prep stars Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph, won its Super Pools game against D1E Derrick Rose All-Stars (Ill.) by forfeit.

In the Main Event at Canyon Springs, Durrell McDonald of Del Sol scored 16 points to lift Mad Moves Inc. to a 56-48 pool-play victory over Prime Time Players (Calif.).