Saturday, Jun. 27, 2009

Top teams will gather at SWIC

Incarnate Word is chasing its sixth title of decade

In five of the past six years, the "words" for the (St. Louis) Incarnate Word Red Knights at the Southwestern Illinois College Blue Storm Girls Basketball Tournament have been "total domination."

A perennial Missouri state title contender, the Red Knights will look for their sixth title of the decade in the annual summer high school tournament when play begins today at Southwestern Illinois College and the Family Sportsplex in Belleville.

Led by veteran coach Dan Rolfes, Incarnate Word defeated Belleville West 37-22 in the title game a year ago.

"If you remember right, West stayed right with them (Incarnate Word) for most of the game before they broke it open late,'' SWIC women's coach and event director Mike Juenger said. "I know one of the reasons Incarnate Word comes over here every year is that they get to play a lot of games in a short (two-day) period, and they get good competition against teams they wouldn't normally get to play."

The 24-team tournament begins at 10 a.m. today with six games per hour, including five on the new wood courts at the Family Sportsplex. The sixth game is set for the main gym at SWIC.

Teams will compete in six four-team pools with each team playing three games today. The field will be broken down into two 12-team bracket-style tournaments Sunday.

The title game in the championship bracket will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Family Sportsplex.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for students and are good for all day at both sites.

While Incarnate Word is the pre-tournament favorite, the Red Knights could be pushed by several of the top teams in the metro east.

Althoff, led by senior guards Jordyne Crunk and Jazmin Hill, should be one of the state's top Class 3A teams during the 2009-10 season, while other strong teams competing this weekend are Belleville West, O'Fallon, Cahokia, Mascoutah, Central, Okawville and Nashville.

"Althoff and Incarnate Word should be among the top teams in the St. Louis-area, and so if they would both make the finals, it would be a great title game,'' Juenger said. "I was a little disappointed that we didn't get as many teams from the Missouri side, but there were quite a few coaching changes, and so that may have had something to do with it.

"Hopefully, some of those schools will be back next year, but we feel very good about this tournament this year. We hope people come out and watch what we think will be some pretty good girls basketball.''