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Several area basketball teams hit the road for holiday tournaments

By Tim Martinez, Columbian Assistant Sports Editor
Published: December 25, 2016, 3:28pm

It’s winter break, which for many area high school basketball means it’s tournament time.

Holiday tournaments are a great way for teams to bond together, perhaps with a road trip, to see players from other parts from the state, or even other states all together.

This week’s high school sports schedule reveals a very busy week of basketball action, with area teams venturing as far as Oregon, Idaho, California or Wyoming to play games.

The team making the farthest trip this week is the Battle Ground boys basketball team, which will travel more than 1,100 miles to compete in the Gillette (Wyo.) Energy Classic.

When the bracket for the tournament was first released, Battle Ground was slated to open on Tuesday against Roosevelt of Portland. But it seemed pretty odd for a team to travel 1,100 miles to play a school located less than 25 miles away.

So the directors changed the bracket, and now the Tigers will open against Bismarck, N.D., on Wednesday. Battle Ground will play two more games in Wyoming on Thursday and Friday.

The next longest trip goes to the Camas boys basketball team, which will play in the Surf ‘N Slam Tournament in San Diego. The Papermakers will open Tuesday against Sacred Heart of Atherton, Calif., on Tuesday. The Surf ‘N Slam continues through Thursday.

The Prairie girls basketball team, a squad always known to take long trips over winter break, will travel to the Bay Area to play in the West Coast Jamboree, a four-day event in Orinda, Calif. The Falcons open Tuesday against Clovis (Calif.) West.

The Columbia River boys basketball team will travel over 400 miles to take part in the Lake City Invitational in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. River opens the three-day event Wednesday against Timberline of Boise.

Several teams will head to Oregon this week. In boys basketball, Heritage and Hockinson head to Astoria, La Center goes to Bend, Mountain View to Hillsboro. In girls basketball, Hockinson goes to Astoria, and Skyview goes to Lake Oswego.

And several teams are staying in state. The event that is drawing the most local teams is the SunDome Shootout in Yakima on Thursday and Friday, which will include the boys basketball teams from Prairie, Woodland, King’s Way Christian and Hudson’s Bay. As for other boys teams, Skyview will head to a tournament in Auburn, Union is at Mountlake Terrace and Evergreen will play in Seattle.

As for girls teams, Columbia River will go to Mountlake Terrace, Fort Vancouver to Rochester and Mountain View to Auburn Riverside High.

But if you want to watch some holiday basketball action and don’t want to go anywhere, the Hoops for the Holiday girls basketball event will be held Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at Evergreen High School.

Each day will have five games featuring Hudson’s Bay, Battle Ground, Ridgefield, Heritage, Evergreen, La Center and Portland schools Madison, Roosevelt, Franklin and Parkrose.

Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.

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