The 24th Annual Irvine Valley College Classic men's basketball tournament starts Thursday with four games.
There will be four games played each of the three days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The 12 games is up a game from previous years with each of the eight schools involved getting three games in the tourney.
Irvine Valley, which has a record of 1-1 so far, opens the classic on Thursday at 5 p.m. against Imperial Valley.
Other games on Thursday include Ventura against Cuyamaca at 1 p.m., Long Beach City vs. American River at 3 p.m. and Cerritos against Canyons to follow the IVC game at 7 p.m.
Games are 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday with the final day's slate featuring contests at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and the championship game at 5 p.m.
Cerritos, which is 1-0 on the year, is the highest ranked team in the tournament. The Falcons were ranked No. 16 in the preseason state poll.
Ventura is the defending champion having defeated Cerritos, 74-66. Irvine Valley won the third-place game a year ago.
Long Beach City is off to a 3-0 start to this season and American River, which fell to IVC in the third-place game last year, has a 2-0 record so far.
