The high school winter break means basketball tournament time on the South Coast.
The action gets started Thursday with the Santa Barbara High girls Tournament of Champions. Sixteen teams divided into Gold and Green divisions will compete over three days at J.R. Richards Gym and San Marcos’ Maury Halleck Gym.
On the boys side, Carpinteria hosts the Jim Bashore Holiday Cage Classic on Friday, Saturday and Monday. Bishop Diego and Santa Ynez join the host Warriors as the local teams entered in the eight-team bracketed event.
Tournament of Champions
Dos Pueblos is playing in the Gold Division while San Marcos and the host Dons compete in the Green Division of this long-running tournament, which has seen stars such as Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Santa Barbara’s Amber Melgoza compete when they were high schoolers.
Dos Pueblos (4-6) opens against a solid Redondo Union (7-5) team at J.R. Richards Gym at 6 p.m. Redondo reached the CIF-SS Division 1 quarterfinals last season and returns point guard Coco Funakoshi. Junior point guard Carly Letendre leads DP. She is coming off a 20-point performance in a win over Rio Mesa.
The 4:30 Gold opener between 8-1 Buena and 3-3 St. Joseph should be entertaining. St. Joseph has played a tough schedule, with its losses coming against powerhouse teams Ontario Christian, Harvard Westlake and Windward. Buena is led by star guards Karisma Lewis and Mimi Moon.
The other Gold Division first-round games have Valencia (9-1) taking on Palisades (3-4) at 7:30 p.m. at San Marcos, and Oaks Christian (3-8) facing Bakersfield Christian (3-7) at 7:30 at Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara and San Marcos are playing in the Green Division. The host Dons (1-8) are home against St. Bonaventure (7-3) at 3 p.m., while the Royals play a 4:30 game in their house against Saugus (2-6). Freshman Jada Ahmad is consistently scoring in double figures for San Marcos. Senior Dayzia Mendoza is putting up double-doubles for Santa Barbara.
Also at San Marcos, Pacifica (6-4) plays Mission Prep (4-3) at 3 p.m., and Thousand Oaks (5-3) takes on San Luis Obispo (10-2) at 6 p.m. in Green Division openers.
The semifinals for the Green Division are at 6 and 7:30 p.m. at San Marcos on Friday; the Gold semifinals are at the same times at Santa Barbara.
Both division championship games are at Santa Barbara on Saturday: Green at 3:30 and Gold at 5 p.m.
Bashore Holiday Cage Classic
Santa Ynez (5-5) plays the tournament tip-off game against 10-2 Channel Islands at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Bishop Diego (5-6) follows at 4 p.m. against Arroyo Grande (1-8). The later two first-round games have Foothill Tech (3-9) playing Coastal Christian (6-1) at 5:30 and Carpinteria (4-5) facing Pasadena Poly (7-3) at 7 p.m.
Guard Jude Pritchard is the leading scorer for Santa Ynez, averaging 17.6 points per game. Sophomore Crew Sjovold is averaging 18 points for Bishop Diego. Sebastian Reed is the leader of the Carpinteria attack.
Friday’s winners play semifinal games at 5:30 and 7:30 on Saturday, and the championship game is Monday at 7 p.m.
Santa Barbara Holiday Classic
This year’s post-Christmas event will be a boys basketball extravaganza, with 37 teams playing games over four days (Dec. 26, 27, 28, 30) at Santa Barbara High, San Marcos and Dos Pueblos.
Six CIF sections (North, North Coast, Sac-Joaquin, Central, Central Coast and Southern) will be represented in the competition.
The field features several strong programs, led by Sierra Canyon and Bishop Montgomery of the Southern Section, Bakersfield-Frontier, Bakersfield High and Fresno Roosevelt of the Central Section and Dougherty Valley of the North Coast Section. Among the top talent expected to play includes Sierra Canyon’s Bryce James (son of LeBron James), Bryce Cofield and Chris Nwuli, Luke Zuffelato of Santa Barbara, Jayden Nozil of Mission Prep, Zack Garnett of Frontier, Kade Johnson of Bakersfield and Marcos Ramirez of Oxnard, who recently passed 1,000 points in his career.
San Marcos, Dos Pueblos and Bishop Diego join host Santa Barbara in the tournament. Santa Barbara, Dos Pueblos and Bishop Diego will play all four days. The Dons take on Yorba Linda, Dougherty Valley, Hillcrest Christian and Sierra Canyon. The Chargers play University Prep of Redding, Holy Martyrs, Paraclete and Mission Prep. The Cardinals face Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies and Oak Park at DP, Sierra Pacific at San Marcos and Santa Paula at SBHS.
San Marcos will play three opponents: Saratoga, Paraclete and Roosevelt, Dec. 26-28.
Here is the full list of teams competing in the Holiday Classic:
Avalon, Bakersfield, Bishop Diego, Bishop Montgomery, Davis, Dos Pueblos, Dougherty Valley, Frontier (Bakersfield), Hillcrest Christian, Holy Martyrs, Hueneme, Lakeview Center, Liberty (Brentwood), Mission Prep, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Oak Park, Orange Lutheran, Oxnard, Pacifica, Paraclete, Portola (Irvine), Righetti, Rio Mesa, Roosevelt (Fresno), San Luis Obispo, San Marcos, Santa Barbara, Santa Paula, Saratoga, Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (SOCES), Sierra Canyon, Sierra Pacific, University Prep (Redding), Ventura, Weed, Yorba Linda.
