Three days of all-out girls’ basketball will be played at Hiland’s Perry Reese Community Center.

Many of Ohio’s top girls’ basketball teams and players will be present in Berlin from Saturday morning through Monday night, including another solid year with local flavor.

There will be 31 teams with 20 games taking place over the course of the weekend. Action starts Saturday at 10 a.m. with West Branch, which is also the defending state champion in Division II, taking on Mt. de Chantal of West Virginia.

Locally, the host Hiland Hawks will take the court at 8:30 p.m. Saturday against defending Division III state champion Youngstown Ursuline.

Also on Saturday, two area teams will play back-to-back to end the night with Dover facing Parma Holy Name at 7 p.m. and Fairless following at 8:45 against Dayton Dunbar, the team that beat both Dover and West Holmes last season at the Classic.

On Monday, River View plays Jackson Center at 11:45 a.m. while West Holmes faces Garfield Trinity at 5 p.m. The host Hawks end the weekend in style against Akron Hoban at 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Also of local interest is the Wooster-Lakota West game at 11:45 a.m. and the North Canton-Cincinnati Princeton game at 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

On Sunday, Massillon Jackson faces Cincinnati Winton Woods at 1:45 p.m. On Monday, North Canton plays Dayton Chaminade-Julienne at 3:15.

Last year was a banner inaugural season for the Classic in the Country. More than 10,000 fans filled the Perry Reese Jr. Community Center with average attendance exceeding 1,200 per game.

Eighty-three college coaches attended last year’s event with Illinois women’s coach Theresa Grentz even stating, “The Big Ten should send their tournament committee to Berlin, Ohio, to see how to put on an event.”

This year’s event will feature even more of the top individual talent in Ohio. Nine of the top 100 seniors in America, as ranked by the All-Star Girls Report and Blue Star Index, will be competing. As will nine of the top 100 juniors, six of the top 100 sophomores and four of the top 100 freshmen.

In terms of Ohio ranked talent, eight of the 12 members of the 2005 Ohio Girls’ Basketball Report Dream Team are competing as well as 18 of the top 25 seniors in the state. Nineteen of the top 25 juniors, 14 of the top 25 sophomores and 15 of the top 25 freshmen also will be in attendance.