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Time for the big boys to play.

The 12-team bracket of the Stuttgart Holiday Basketball Tournament was reduced to four contenders Friday, the second of the annual three-day event hosted by Patch. The four semifinalists are the field's only four DODDS-Europe Division I schools - Kaiserslautern, Lakenheath, Wiesbaden, and the host Panthers.

The four teams, each headlining one of the tournament's three-team pools, cruised unchallenged through two days of preliminary play.

Patch beat DODDS-Europe Division II opponent Black Forest Academy and German club TSV Häfnerhaslach in pool play, then blasted DODDS-Europe Division II school Baumholder 64-21 to earn its berth in the semifinals.

Kaiserslautern handled Baumholder and German club BSG Vaihingen Sachsenheim on Thursday and routed International School of Paris 51-28 on Friday to advance.

Lakenheath, which beat Patch in last year's tournament title game, beat club team Ludwigsberg and ISP before trouncing Black Forest Academy 46-19 in the quarterfinals.

Wiesbaden sailed past DODDS-Europe Division II team Bitburg and German club BC Vaihingen on Thursday and beat Ludwigsburg 53-22 to join its Division I peers in the semifinals.

Patch will face Kaiserslautern and Wiesbaden will take on Lakenheath in championship semifinals starting concurrently at 11:30 a.m. CET on Saturday; the championship game follows in the afternoon. The day's schedule will include consolation games.

The event is sanctioned by DODDS-Europe, but the games do not count toward the team's regular-season records. The DODDS-Europe season resumes Jan. 10.

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

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