Holiday Hoops Classic: Girls Basketball Tournament

***Be sure to click the videos link for complete day one highlights***

By James A. McCray III
Prince George’s County, Content Manager

The Maryland Basketball Officials Association kicked off its 11th annual Holiday Hoops Classic girls basketball tournament on Friday, hosted by Washington Bible College.

The tournament features eight local teams including North Point and Westlake (SMAC), Bladensburg and Gwynn Park (Prince George’s), Old Mill and Southern (Anne Arundel), Elizabeth Seton (WCAC), and Robert E. Lee (Northern Virginia).

The tournament takes place over three days and with Friday already in the books, games are scheduled for Saturday and the tournament will conclude Monday night.

As four teams emerged victorious on day one of competition, all players from the winning side can agree that earning an opening-round victory was much better than any Christmas gift.

Day 2 scheduled game times:2 p.m. North Point vs. Southern; 4 p.m. Gwynn Park vs. Westlake; 6 p.m. Bladensburg vs. Robert E. Lee; 8 p.m. Old Mill vs. Seton

HOLIDAY HOOPS CLASSIC GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: DAY 1 RECAP

Game 1
Bladensburg 45, North Point 40
Both of the respective teams came into the opening-tournament game with zeros in the loss column as the North Point Lady Eagles held a 5-0 record and the Bladensburg Lady Mustangs held a 4-0 record, respectively.

Only one team however was going to end the day with a zero still in place and as the Lady Mustangs overcame three separate five-point deficits in the final quarter of play, it would in fact be Bladensburg earning that right with a 45-40 defeat of the previously undefeated Eagles.

“I thought they played well,” Bladensburg head coach Lester Butler said. “They took their time and they played under control. … I don’t think they played the way we have [been playing] initially, but I think we had a few kids still celebrating Christmas.”

As North Point stretched its lead to 38-33 with 3 minutes remaining in the game –its third of three five-point leads– Bladensburg worked its way back slowly chipping at the lead until a Joelle Hill basket gave it the lead at 39-38.

Hill’s basket was followed by a basket by center Ucheci Ahaiwe to further increase the lead to 41-38, all of the cushion needed for the victory.

“We just realized that we can’t fall under and we can’t fold under pressure,” Ahaiwe said of the team’s fourth quarter thoughts. ” … We were tired, they were tired too, and we just had to prove that we had more heart and we had to play.”

Ahaiwe led all scorers with a game-high 16 points, nine of which coming in the critical fourth quarter.

Robyn Parks led all North Point scorers with 14 as teammate Tiara Butler put in 13.

North Point    —    7   8   12   13; Parks 14, Butler 13, Stewart 10, Baker 2, Harmon 1
Bladensburg —    9   7    7    22; Ahaiwe 16, Wallace 10, Hill 9, Proctor 5, O’Garro 2, Perkins 2, Davis 1

Game 2
Robert E. Lee 64, Southern 42
In only her second game back from a stress fracture injury and despite being limited to only 4 minutes of action per quarter, Lee’s Kristine Mial scored 20 points to lead all tournament day-one scorers as the Lee Lady Lancers defeated the Southern Lady Bulldogs 64-42.

“It feels really good, I [have] been anxious,” Mial said of getting back in the flow of things on the court. “I am not usually one to sit on the bench so I have just been waiting to come back. I just had so much built up inside of me, it was fun.”

Lee (6-1) jumped out to an 11-1 lead to open the game as its constant defensive pressure turned into easy offensive opportunities and eventually to the win.

“We tried to put some defensive pressure on them to force some turnovers,” Lee head coach Harold Jackson said. “We got some early turnovers and we made some shots early. … We wanted to try and get out to a fast start and go on like that, and they did that tonight.”

On Mial’s performance, Jackson added: “She is a big plus on the court. … She just got cleared to play last week and she did well. We needed her big time.”

Lee also had two additional double-digit scorers as Priscilla Moseh scored 14 and Markel Yates scored 13 points, respectively.

Raquelle Jones led Southern with 13 points on the night.

Southern    —     6   17   7   12; Jones 13, Wills 11, F. Jones 9, Eckard 5, Mcllrath 2, Rosenburg 2
Lee            —    15 16 18  15; Mial 20, Pr. Moseh 14, Yates 10, Jac. Williams 7, Pa. Moseh 7, Kolonich 4, Jas. Williams 2

Game 3
Old Mill 54, Gwynn Park 38
One look at the post-game scorebook and it is clearly evident, the list of players scoring for the Old Mill Lady Patriots is long. In the third game of the opening day, the Lady Patriots took on the Gwynn Park Yellow Jackets and used its depth to earn a 54-38 victory.

“That’s one thing that we have,” Old Mill head coach Craig White responded when asked about team depth. “If we want to play that pressure style, a lot of teams say they want to play eight to 10 deep, but we actually truly feel that we are eight to 10 deep.”

Not only do the Lady Patriots go deep on the bench player-wise, but the depth at the guard position runs deep as well.

Tonight, Old Mill (6-0) was led by guards Ciarra Lucas as she led with a team-high 13 points, Kourtney Salisbury who scored 9 points and dished out 5 assists, and guard Shante Atkinson as she scored 8 points, respectively.

“We came in focused because, of course, it was a holiday and we are coming off of Christmas break, and we need to get out little work in for our season,” Lucas said. ” … We want to win it all so we came in with a lot of energy.”

“Our guard play is extremely strong,” White added. “We have the three of the top guards, we think, in Anne Arundel County [Lucas, Salisbury, and Atkinson]. They all work real well together and we are able to distribute the ball and so forth and so on.

“The major key is that all of our [power forwards and centers] are all sophomores and juniors and they come ready to play. One of our main concerns coming in was would we be able to rebound … and things seem to be working the right way.”

Kirstin Mobley had a game-high 15 points to lead the Yellow Jackets.

Gwynn Park    —     6   7   12   13; Mobley 15, Lee 7, Simms 6, Jackson 4, Law 3, Black 3
Old Mill          —    11 11 17 15; Lucas 13, Salisbury 9, Smith 9, Atkinson 8, Conley 6, Pinkcett 4, Hawkins 2, Sharps 2, Rijos 1

Game 4
Elizabeth Seton 65, Westlake 41
The final game of the opening day of the tournament for the Elizabeth Seton Roadrunners was a tale of two halves. In the first half of its contest with the Westlake Wolverines, Westlake controlled the pace of the game, so much so that it went into the half with a 22-19 lead.

However, a 9-0 scoring run to open the second half and a 10-0 scoring run later in the quarter catapulted the Roadrunners to a 65-41 victory.

“We started off slow,” Seton’s Tyaunna Marshall admitted. “We were playing around before the game and started off very slow. We couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t play defense, and we couldn’t run the offense. We went into the locker room at halftime and got ourselves together.”

Seton (5-1) in fact got itself together turning a 3-point deficit into a 15-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

“First of all, I don’t believe I have seen us play this bad ever in this my third year here,” Seton head coach Jazz Perazic said. “They are great kids, and they work really hard … and I went in and kind of just yelled at them a little bit, and I think it got to them.”

Westlake’s Shanice Gorce led all of the Wolverines in scoring with 14 points.

Westlake    —     15   7   6   13; Gorce 14, Bell 6, Barr 6, Jones Harris 5, Davis 4, Young 4, Beckett 2
Seton         —     9   10 24 22; Marshall 13, Stelfox 10, Missouri 8, Murphy 8, Martin 7, Weatherly 7, Marshall 4, Royster 4, Albanese 4

tmccray@digitalsports.com