Tim Martinez: Area teams get their fill of holiday basketball tournaments

It’s the season for holiday basketball tournaments, with several high school teams participating in events both near and far.

Locally, Fort Vancouver will be hosting a holiday tournament for a sixth year.

This year’s event has been renamed the Myron Lawrence Memorial Basketball Tournament in memory of a former Fort player and beloved member of the Trapper family who died suddenly in 2020.

This year’s event will consist of three brackets, two named for former Fort standouts, being played out from Wednesday to Friday at Fort Vancouver High School and McLoughlin Middle School.

The JaQuan Thomas Bracket consists of eight boys teams, including Mountain View, Union and Fort Vancouver.

The Jameel Morton Bracket is another eight-team boys bracket that includes Hudson’s Bay, Columbia-White Salmon and Heritage.

And the Fort Vancouver girls will be joined by River Ridge of Lacey, Kingston and Ashland, Ore., in the girls round-robin tournament.

Here’s a look at other holiday tournaments featuring local teams up and down the West Coast:

Portland

The Camas and Skyview girls basketball teams will be playing in separate brackets of the Holiday Classic, running Thursday through Saturday.

Skyview plays in the Emerald Bracket with games at Grant High School. The Storm open against Lakeridge of Lake Oswego at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Camas will play in the Open Division at Franklin High School with games against California powers Mater Dei of Santa Ana, Archbishop Mitty of San Jose and Etiwanda of Rancho Cucamonga.

Tacoma

The Evergreen boys and Woodland boys and girls are playing in the T-Town Throwdown, which runs Tuesday through Thursday at Silas High School in Tacoma.

San Diego

Southern California is the destination spot for several area teams.

The Columbia River boys and girls, Union girls and Hockinson girls will be participating in the Surf ‘N Slam San Diego Hoop Classic, playing three games from Wednesday to Saturday.

The River girls will play in the Surf bracket in La Jolla, while the Union and Hockinson girls will play in the Slam bracket in El Cajon and La Jolla. The River boys play in the Slam bracket at Helix High School in La Mesa.

The Prairie girls will play four games in the FIBA Gold division of the So Cal Holiday Prep Classic. The Falcons will play four games Wednesday through Saturday at Madison and Marantha high schools in San Diego.

Phoenix

The Kelso boys and girls, and the Ridgefield boys will travel to the desert to play in the Cactus Jam Phoenix Hoop Classic.

The Kelso and Ridgefield boys will play in the Jam division at Sunnyslope High School, playing three games from Wednesday to Saturday.

The Kelso girls play three games in the Tempe division.

Other events

The Mark Morris, La Center and Seton Catholic boys will play two games each in the Sundome Shootout at the Yakima Sundome on Thursday and Friday.

The R.A. Long girls will play three games (Wednesday through Friday) at the Vince Dulcich Tournament at Astoria, Ore.

The Prairie boys will play two games at the Mountlake Terrace Tournament on Thursday and Friday.

The King’s Way Christian and Stevenson boys play two games each in the Ilwaco Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

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