oregon holiday invitational

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SoCalHoops Tournament News

Oregon Holiday Invitational
Starts Saturday--(Dec. 16, 1999)

One of our readers who read our "Vegas: Who Isn't Coming To Town This Year" article, about the absence of the big-time, high profile teams from this year's Reebok Holiday Prep Classic, noticed that we failed to mention that three other top teams in the U.S., Rice (No. 1 in the USA Today Poll), Portland Jefferson (featuring Brandon Brooks and Antone Jerrell, and currently No. 13 in the USA Today Top 25 poll), and Southern Lab from Baton Rouge, Louisianna (currently ranked No. 20 by USA Today), along with unranked SoCal-based Redondo Union, winner of this year's 48th Pacific Shores Tournament, will all be at the 1999 Oregon Holiday Invitational, which is sponsored by Les Schwab Tires, and hence is called the "Les Schwab Oregon Holiday Invitational." In fact, not only will this be a good tournament, with these top four teams, not to mention a bunch of other excellent teams from Oregon, this will be one of the top events in the West.

The tournament will take place from Dec. 18, (there will be no games on Sunday, the 19th) and then continue on Monday, December 20, Tuesday December 21 and it will conclude on Wednesday, December 22, 1999. Games will take place at Lewis & Clark College in Portland. The OHI (as it's known for short) has it's own website (which actually takes a little negotiating to find this year's information), which has a list of the teams participating, a history of the OHI, a complete bracket for the 1999 OHI, and several press releases. They'll be updating the website (or so the organizers say) during the tournament, so that should make it easier to find results. You can check the links above yourself to find the results during the week; we'll also try to post them ourselves in Daily Article format here at SoCalHoops

Here's a hint of what the tournament is abourt and who is coming. This is the official Press Release for the 1999 Oregon Holiday Invitational Tournament; it's from a couple of months ago, but much of the information is still timely and at least it will give you a good idea of who will be playing:

PORTLAND, OR., Sept. 23, 1999 -- The Les Schwab Oregon Holiday Invitational is set for tip-off December 18, 20-22 1999. This state's premier 16 team invitational boys tournament will feature outstanding high school talent from the state of Oregon and around the nation.

The Oregon Holiday Invitational is excited to announce the commitment of three national powers in '99 - Rice High School, New York City, NY, Southern Lab High School, Baton Rouge, LA and Redondo Union, Redondo Beach, CA. These three programs are powers in their respective states as well as on the national level.

Rice, who won their second consecutive and third overall New York State Federation Class A title in '99, returns four starters from a team which finished #2 in the nation in 1998-99. The Raiders' only loss came at the hands of '97 OHI champion Oak Hill Academy, VA. Rice is expected to be very strong again and a preseason national top five team. Rice was also the 1998-99 New York City champions settling the heated debate of parochial v. public school basketball in the city of New York.

The Baby Jags of Southern Lab will bring in four returning starters from their 35-3 / defending Louisiana Class A state champs. They will be led by state tournament MVP Marcus Spears (6'5" F). Joining Spears are Nick Anderson (6'7" F, All state '98), Trayvean Scott (6'2" G, All state '98) and Rodrick Ambrose (6'6" F, All district '98). The Baby Jags will employ a man-to-man / press philosophy every minute of every game and will try to play the game in the '80's.

Redondo Union also returns four starters from their 23-6 club of a year ago. Redondo Union defeated 1998 OHI champion Crenshaw, CA six days prior to their arrival in the Rose City. The Sea Hawks were California Quarterfinalists in '98 and plan to ride the shoulders of all-American candidate Andrew Zahn (6'9", 240lbs, 24ppg). Redondo will not stop with Zahn however. They go 10 deep and will easily be the biggest team in the '99 OHI. Back with Zahn will be all-CIF Walter White (6'5", 22ppg), Djon Thompson (6'7") and Ryan Mollins (6'6"). The first two off the bench will also block out the sun - Adam Zahn (6'8") and Paul Meynem (6'10"). The Sea Hawks will take all this size and still play man-to-man / press / fastbreak and will look to play the game in the high 70's.

Oregon clubs in for the fourth consecutive year are Beaverton, South Salem, Westview, Benson, and 1998 runner-up Jefferson. Those returning for their third trip to the OHI are defending state champion Jesuit, West Linn, Churchill and Central Catholic. Second time entrants are Lake Oswego, Sunset and
Barlow. Included for the first time will be the Redmond Panthers.

All games will be played at Lewis & Clark College with each day getting underway at 9:00am. Each team is guaranteed four games. Opening round games will take place Saturday Dec. 18th and Sunday will be an off day. Live stats and tournament coverage will be posted at www.promax1.com. For additional information contact tournament management at 503-227-1588.

FIRST ROUND MATCHUPS GAME NUMBER
Redondo Union, CA v. Churchill, OR #4
Beaverton, OR v. Barlow, OR #6
Westview, OR v. West Linn, OR #2
Jefferson, OR v. Redmond, OR #3
---------------Bracket Separator------------------
Rice, NY v. Lake Oswego, OR #7
South Salem, OR v. Jesuit, OR #5
Central Catholic, OR v. Benson, OR #1
Southern Lab, LA v. Sunset, OR #8

Opening round games are as listed above. Please note the jumbled order for Saturday 12/18 will revert back to a bracket format on Monday 12/20 (i.e. winner Game #4 v. winner Game #6 @ 4:00pm on 20th and so on). If this prompts questions please contact John McCallum at Promax 503-227-1588 (mac@promax1.com).

GAME TIMES (All Days)
Game 1 - 9:00am Game 2 - 10:30am Game 3 - 12:00pm Game 4 - 1:30pm
Game 5 - 4:00pm Game 6 - 5:30pm Game 7 - 7:00pm Game 8 - 8:30pm

Notes:
-All games will be played at Lewis & Clark College.
-A one hour break following Game 4 will seperate the day's sessions.

We'd like to say "see you there," but the chances of us making it up there for one day are pretty slim. Still, if you're in the Portland area and can get over to Lewis & Clark, there won't be anything better in the vicinity so let us know what you've seen on the message forum.