Not as many girls holiday/Christmas tournaments in Northern Virginia this year, but still a lot of good action. Two bracket-style tourneys at Lightridge and Mount Vernon, while Oakton is again hosting three days of pre-scheduled games.
Starting Friday and going Saturday and Monday are the Oakton and Mount Vernon Tourneys. At Oakton there are a lot of good games–we don’t have the complete schedule but know a lot of the games and will post them on the site when we have them all. There are a lot of tilts between teams ranked in our Nova Nineteen–for instance #11 Robinson-#16 Flint Hill and #5 West Potomac-#14 Woodgrove on Friday. Should be fun.
Mount Vernon is known for its guys tournament that has gone on for a long time, but this year the ladies will also compete. This tournament also starts Friday and features the host Majors plus NOVA teams Westfield, Marshall, Justice, Annandale, Gar-Field, and Forest Park.
We’ll definitely drop in at Bolt Ball this year at Lightridge, which runs Thursday through Saturday. One, because we prefer bracket-style tournaments where a team actually earns a trophy; two, because the field this year top-to-bottom is fairly evenly matched. The bracket is below:
We do wish the championship trophy was a glow-in-the-dark basketball–wonder if Lightridge has taken us up yet on that suggestion? Anyway, if you’re a Division III coach especially, this might be worth checking out–no ranked teams in this one, but a lot of good ones and some sleeper talent.
Briar Woods lost a notable senior class and their coach from last year, but the Falcons still have experienced talent back and are playing solid ball. TJ senior Kaiden Kerkulah is an undersized post player capable of 20-10 on any given night. Clarke County junior Alainah McKavish already has 1,000 career points and she went for 33 the other night. Washington-Liberty has held up fine against some local powerhouses despite missing their center and are legit postseason threats.
That’s just the top half of the bracket. The bottom half has host Lightridge, a somewhat slept-on threat this year. If you haven’t seen the Lightning’s junior Jalyn Childress play, you’re missing a treat. She’s an athletic forward that can do a lot both on the perimeter and inside. Fairfax, South Lakes, and solid sophomore Madison Huynh and Battlefield are well-coached and capable of advancing, but it will be hard to knock off the hosts.
Get out and support girls basketball this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday!
–Chris Jollay