With Christmas Day just right around the corner, several local basketball teams are gearing up for one last shot to add wins to their resumes before the holiday break when they meet on Thursday and Friday for the East Marion Holiday Tournament.
This year's tournament will feature boys and girls squads from four schools: East Marion, West Marion, Columbia and Jeff Davis County. East Marion head coach Calvin Brown said the tournament is always a memorable event for himself, the players and the community, and he's looking forward to watching another chapter unfold.
"We've had this tournament each year for longer than I've been at East Marion, and I've been here for about 20 years," Brown said. "It's just a really exciting atmosphere for the kids to be a part of. It's rare to be able to create that type of electricity for a high school basketball game, so they really enjoy it, and so do the fans."
The hosting Eagles (4-1) are flying into the tournament, having won four straight contests since falling to Columbia in their first game of the season. They avenged that loss Dec. 13 with a 73-65 win over the Wildcats at home, led by Caden Mingo with 18 points, six rebounds and an assist. Donny Anderson chipped in 16 points and four rebounds, and LJ Andrews and LaDarien Haynes both scored 13 points with a combined 12 rebounds and six assists.
The Eagles traveled to Ellisville on Friday and collected another win over the Class 5A South Jones Braves. This time Haynes was the star, scoring 16 points to go with six rebounds, three assists and a steal to help lift East Marion over a highly-skilled opponent in a shootout. Anderson posted 13 points and four rebounds, and Jack Johnson tacked on 10 points with seven rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Brown said he likes the Eagles' chances of competing at a high level in the tournament, but their ultimate goal as a team is to simply continue making strides toward their goals for district and postseason play.
"With rivalry games like this, it really just comes down to who plays the best on that given night," Brown said. "But we always kind of have one eye looking over our current opponent's shoulder to February. Our main focus is just cleaning up some things that can hurt us later in the season and putting ourselves in the best position to compete when it matters most."
The Lady Eagles (0-4), on the other hand, will enter the tournament still in search of their first win of the season. They fell to Columbia 53-15 in their Dec. 13 meeting at East Marion and lost 53-14 to South Jones on Friday. Brown said the Lady Eagles are still a work in progress, still searching for a few answers with a young roster after the graduation of several key players from a year ago.
"I think each game we play is going to teach our girls something new. They still have a lot to learn about themselves as a team and about how to expect other teams to attack us," Brown said. "We'll keep growing and makings steps in the right direction."
The Wildcats (6-3) are hoping to use Thursday's and Friday's tournament as a chance to rebound from a pair of tough losses, having fallen 73-65 on the road to East Marion Dec. 13 and 71-62 to West Marion Dec. 15. Kendale Johnson led the Wildcats in scoring through both contests, posting 20 points against the Eagles and 17 against the Trojans.
Head coach Brian Butler said it's always difficult to win games against rival schools, but he and his players are eagerly awaiting their chance to bounce back and deliver a strong showing in the annual tournament, starting with their first game on Thursday against Jeff Davis.
"It's always just a little bit harder to win rivalry games. The energy level, the intensity level and the environment are always amped more so than they would be for a typical game," Butler said. "It doesn't matter which team has the better record or thinks they have more talent. You've got to show up and battle it out.
"For the tournament, we just want to compete at a high level and represent well for our program and our school to show that we do have one of the better, stronger programs in Marion County."
The Lady Wildcats (5-5) will also be looking for a measure of revenge on this week's tournament. They had won four consecutive games before being stunned Dec. 15 in a 49-44 loss to West Marion. Jakira Brown scored a game-high 20 points in the contest, but head coach Charlie James said the Lady Wildcats will need to execute better from top to bottom if they want to get back on the winning track against tough competition in the tournament.
"We're still working on getting better in the half court and getting better defensively," James said. "As far as the makeup of the team and the way they're approaching each game and each practice, I love that part. The girls are really excited for the tournament, just as they are every year. These local teams really push one another and challenge one another to get better before district play, so hopefully we and all the other teams will come away from it a little bit stronger than we went in."
Both squads from West Marion will be carrying momentum into the tournament. The Trojans (3-10) have won three of their last five contests, and on Dec. 15 they collected their first win over the Wildcats since 2016. The Lady Trojans (13-1) earned a win over the Lady Wildcats that night as well, extending their current winning streak to nine games and shooting up the Capital Sports standings as the No. 4 ranked team in Class 3A. Senior Caleb Varnado said both teams are excited for the chance to build on that success with strong performances against a few rival teams.
"Last year we didn't play in the tournament because we weren't that great of a team, but now we have a coach who believes in us, and we're working hard to turn things around," Varnado said. "The girls will do their thing. I already know that. We're going to do our best to win too and keep heading in the right direction."
The Jaguars (5-5) will pose a real threat in the tournament as well. They won their first four games of the season before falling in five straight contests, one being on their home floor Dec. 6 against East Marion in a 66-62 nail-biter. The Lady Jaguars (6-3) earned a 62-35 win over the Lady Eagles that night, and they've since tacked on two more wins to their season total.
The tournament will begin Thursday with a pair of matchups between Columbia and Jeff Davis, with the girls starting at 4 p.m. and the boys beginning at 5:30 p.m. The girls from East and West Marion will tip off at 7 p.m., followed by the boys from East and West Marion at 8:30 p.m.
The losers of Thursday's games will compete for third place on Friday, starting with the girls at 4 p.m. and the boys at 5:30 p.m. The girls championship game will be played at 7 p.m., followed by the boys at 8:30 p.m.
