It's high school basketball holiday tournaments...
TBH has one in her hometown... It's the "Dothan Eagle-Dothan Progress Holiday Prep Classic" presented by a legal firm whose founding father talked about things not fitting and subsequent acquitting...
It's actually a pretty good tournament in a fairly new building that seats 3,500 or
so on a sellout date. And, by the way, it's not in Dothan...16 teams, three ranked in Alabama, one more ranked in Georgia ((a defending champ)), and a bunch of nearby schools who can bring folks to fill in seats.
Another Georgia school, Randolph-Clay, has a great history and a good tourney record. The town of Cuthbert knows basketball and nothing else. Donnell Harvey played well enough in Cuthbert to go to the University of Florida and get a cup of coffee in the NBA. But, this time around, they're very young. They should make some noise in the post-season tourney, but a 20-point loss to Robertsdale High of Alabama will leave Head Coach Tyrone Kellogg thinking for New Year's.
They also don't have any seniors...
After dinner, we went back to check in on her alma mater. After being down early, Carroll High went on a 23-5 run that gave the Eagles the distance they needed to beat Straughn High comfortably.
But the night cap was the real treat- unless you were the opposition.
Whitefield Academy, defending champ in the smallest classification in Georgia, was playing Charles Henderson High from nearby Troy, Alabama. Unfortunately for Henderson, I don't think they've ever seen a team as fast- as consistently- as Whitfield.
They press. They run. They trap. And they run some more.
It's 32 minutes of hell- to borrow a phrase from Nolan Richardson.
It was 21-4 Whitefield after one quarter. It was 36-9 at the break.
Henderson had one field goal in the first quarter, didn't score another one until the 4:22 mark of the second.
Head Coach Tyrone Johnson has two seniors, but the real high flyer is sophomore Kenneth Gaines. After an early third quarter alley oop, TBH and I knew that was our cue to leave the Civic Center. Johnson, to go with those seniors, has three juniors and five sophomores.
We guess they played most of those sophomores and the one freshman in the third and fourth as Whitefield coasted to a first-round win.
Did I mention that their second round game is against TBH's alma...???
She was cringing at that idea early Saturday night watching the Wolves...and she still hates Enterprise High back home...
Oh... the first "E" in Whitefield is silent... everyone will, probably, have that figured out by March...
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