Earl recaps holiday tourney action

Here’s a little recap from some of last week’s holiday tournament action.

Nationally-ranked Incarnate Word Academy rolled to the championship of the Visitation Christmas Tournament last week. The Red Knights defeated Hazelwood Central 88-44 for the championship. Junior standout Napheesa Collier led IWA with 27 points while senior point guard Nakiah Bell added 20 points. Collier was voted the Most Valuable Player in the tournament. Incarnate Word is now headed to Florida to participate in a national tournament against some of the country’s best girls’ teams. Good luck to them.

Edwardsville wins Carbondale 

Edwardsville High won the championship of the Carbondale Holiday Tournament. The Tigers defeated host Carbondale 59-51 to win the Large School Division title. Senior Darius Crochrell scored 20 points to lead Edwardsville. The Tigers went on to defeat Small School Division champion Madison 65-48 to win the overall title. Forward Armon Fletcher had 23 points and 19 rebounds to lead Edwardsville. Guard Shawn Roundtree added 19 points and nine assists. Edwardsville is now 12-0.

CBC heads west 

CBC ventured west to California to play in the Max Preps Holiday Classic. As of press time, the Cadets were 2-1. They lost to a powerful Long Beach Poly team in their opening game. The Cadets rebounded to defeat Los Osos (CA) and Catallina Foothills, which was the No. 4 ranked team in Arizona.

Chaminade wins own 

Sophomore sensation Jayson Tatum led Chaminade to the championship of its own holiday tournament. The Red Devils defeated Bayless 75-54 in the championship game. The 6’8″ Tatum scored a game-high 27 points to lead Chaminade. Tatum averaged 25 points in Chaminade’s three victories last week.

MICDS semifinals tonight 

The semifinals of the MICDS Holiday Tournament will be played tonight. In the first game, No. 1 seed Duchesne will play No. 5 seed SLUH at 6 p.m. The other semifinal game will pit No. 2 Ladue against No. 3 St. Charles at 7:45 p.m. The winners will play for the championship on Friday night at 6 p.m. In today’s girls semifinals, host MICDS will play Parkway Central at 3 p.m., followed by Oakville vs. Westminster at 4:30 p.m. The championship game will be played on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Lavender averages 30 

Senior guard Deion Lavender scored 32 points to lead Alton-Marquette to a 55-4 victory over Waterloo in the championship game of the Columbia-Freeburg Tournament. The 6’3″ Lavender averaged 30 points a game in the tournament.

(You can follow more of Earl’s holiday tournament recaps on his basketball website, www.earlaustinjr.com and on twitter @earlaustinjr.)