DECATUR – For almost three decades, the Decatur Orthopedic Clinic Christmas Tournament has made a name for girls basketball in North Alabama.
The tournament, formerly known as the River City Classic, is hosting 16 teams from across the state, ranging from north to central Alabama, who play three days of hoops after the Christmas holidays.
This tournament began in 1988 under Mike Smith who was the coach of Decatur High School at that time. He handled it until he retired several years ago with assistant coach Brad Boy waiting in the wings. Boy was given the position after Smith's retirement, with the tournament maintaining the stability of having great teams, players and coaches invading the River City in the final week of December.
Cullman County teams have established their legacy through the years at the tournament, from Cold Springs, Holly Pond, Fairview and Cullman.
In the early years, a dream matchup took place when undefeated Cullman, featuring Ginger Holt, a future UAB player and later a doctor in Nashville, Kristy Ward, a future collegiate hoops coach and Jelia Day, a future athletic trainer and teacher, took on undefeated Hartselle, featuring future Wallace State guard Jeaniece Slater in the championship with a large crowd on hand. Hartselle won the game, and the two rivals would meet later in the postseason with a trip to the state tournament hanging in the balance.
Holly Pond is among the field in 2016, bringing a new coach in Paige Parker-Adams to her first chiropractic classic and a couple of hustling seniors in guards Ruth Horton and Taylor Tankersley.
Neighbors close to Decatur present a local atmosphere, with Austin, Brewer, Hartselle from Morgan County, while Tanner is about 10 miles away inside Limestone County. The Lady Rattlers came to this year's event with an undefeated record.
Two teams with great credentials are here in Homewood, sporting a 10-1 record after a romp of Colbert County in the first round and undefeated Madison Academy at 13-0.
The Birmingham area is represented by Jackson-Olin, who had a strong run with a third-place finish in November's Lady Hawks Classic in Danville, plus Spain Park and Homewood.
A matchup for spectators to see will be Tanner and Homewood on Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
Huntsville is playing with emotion after a 51-32 win over Holly Pond Tuesday morning. Coach Willie Moore lost a family member on Monday with Decatur making arrangements in moving the game to a 9:30 a.m. starting time so Moore could make his way to the funeral that was later in the day.
A tournament such as the Decatur Orthopedic allows teams to see opponents they don't face regularly. It's a building block with teams using this to get adjusted when they resume regular season and area schedule play in the first week of January.
The best game covered by the Tribune was game six with Brewer playing Spain Park. Brewer's winning streak got a good test last week when the Lady Patriots rallied from a 5-point deficit with 2:30 to go in the game and rally by Fairview 56-53.
Tonight, it went further. Claire Holt for Spain Park got fouled on a 3-point shot with 1.6 seconds left in regulation and her team down by three.
The junior went to the stripe and was calm to hit the three ties and send the game into overtime at 68-68.
In the first OT, a basket as time expired by the Lady Jaguars' Arhille Parks was waived off by the side official. The side official said the ball was still in Parks' hands when the horn sound, nullifying a potential game winner.
A second overtime had to be played with the score now at 75-75.
Spain Park got the lead in this segment and free throws from Holt with 19 seconds to go put the Lady Jags ahead by the score of 88-82.
They were able to hang on and break Brewer's nine-game winning streak. The Lady Patriots are now 14-2 while Spain Park picked up its ninth win against five losses.
This tournament presents great individual talent in Horton of Holly Pond, Shyan Flack of Brewer, Lindsey Berry of Hartselle, Kirstin Brown of Tanner, Destinee McGhee of Madison Academy, Chelsea Leach of Colbert County, Megan Hill of Lawrence County and Bailee Bowers of Spain Park.
The tournament had its share of collegiate coaches attending Tuesday, with more to come for Wednesday's games and plenty to be around Thursday when a champion is crowned.
Hard work is what builds an event and the Decatur Orthopedic Clinic has built a great reputation for almost three decades, looking very bright for the future.
Decatur Orthopedic Clinic scores – Tuesday:
- Huntsville 51, Holly Pond 32
- Tanner 51, Lawrence County 42
- Homewood 69, Colbert County 48
- Madison Academy 51, Jackson-Olin 44
- James Clemens 58, Hartselle 49
- Spain Park 89, Brewer 84 (2 OT)
- Austin vs. Buckhorn
- Decatur vs. Talladega County Central
Tournament resumes at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday with consolation bracket games, followed by the quarterfinals.
On Thursday, the semis are at 9:30 and 11 a.m. with the title game to be at 8 p.m.
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