The calendar has flipped to December and the winter season is fully upon us.
That, of course, means basketball. And there's no place better to get your basketball fix than STLhighschoolsports.com.
This week, we've been rolling out our preview capsules, players to watch, rankings, etc. for large-schools boys, small-schools boys, large-schools girls and small-schools girls.
For a comprehensive look at our boys basketball coverage, click here. For a comprehensive look at our girls basketball coverage, click here.
WEST SIDE STORY
With the fall season just completed and the winter season just beginning, The Morning Prep has been mostly off for the last couple weeks.
So, this story from Joe Lyons slipped through the cracks, but is still worth sharing.
In it, area boys soccer coaches mostly rave about the way the tournament shook out in its inaugural turn in Blue Springs.
The Morning Prep was along for the ride to suburban KC and can vouch for the fact it was a very good weekend.
Making it all even better? An all-St. Louis Class 3 final (DeSmet over Oakville), an all-St. Louis Class 2 final (unbeaten Priory over Trinity) and a Class 1 final featuring two out-of-town teams whose coaches each went to high school in St. Louis.
THURSDAY REWIND
• Early in the season, tournament seedings can be a little off. Case in point: the Southside Classic girls basketball tourney in which the Nos. 5 and 6 seeds did battle for the championship. And it was the No. 6 seed, DuBourg, that came away with a 44-40 win over Notre Dame.
• The Edwardsville girls basketball team has had the number of both Collinsville and the entire Southwestern Conference for a while now and both of those lengthy win streaks continued with a 63-37 rout by the visiting Tigers.
• It was a sophomore guard in Jessica Moore who was the difference maker in Ursuline's 41-30 win over Ladue in the Jim Salsman Tip-Off Tournament girls basketball final at Fox in a battle of the 2009 tourney champs (Ursuline) against the 2010 champs (Fox).
• Missouri State signee Mikala McGhee looked in midseason form with 17 first half points and 21 total in the Pattonville girls basketball team's 73-29 pounding of Fort Zumwalt North.
ON THE TOWN, FRIDAY STYLE
Basketball Friday isn't usually as jam-packed as Football Friday in the fall, but there are still several quality games in our coverage schedule. Readers can come back to the site late Friday to catch up on all the game action. Here's what we're covering.
• Collinsville and Edwardsville will go at again on the court this time on the boys side at 7:30 at the Edwardsville's Lucco-Jackson Gymnasium. This meeting is annually the Tigers' first game and it is again this year, while the Kahoks always have the Jacksonville Tournament under their belts with this year's tourney yielding a championship and a 5-0 record.
• Boys tournament championships dot the map tonight with a trio of quality matchups -- McCluer vs. Chaminade in the Pattonville Tournament final at the much earlier than usual start time of 5:30; Belleville West against host Vianney in the final of the Jerry Boeckman/Vianney Invitational at 7:30; and SLUH vs. Bayless in a rematch of the Southside Classic Tournament final, this time around at Mehlville, at 8.
• Not to be outdone there are also three stellar girls basketball tournament championships we'll bring you tonight -- Fort Zumwalt West vs. Lafayette in the Randi Perkins Tournament final at Marquette at 7; Borgia (fresh off putting a halt to St. Dominic's 31-game winning streak in the semis) vs. Troy in the final of the Troy Trojan Invitational at 8; and Lutheran St. Charles against Francis Howell Central in the Lutheran St. Charles Tournament final at 8:15.
THE VIEW FROM ELSEWHERE
• The town of Rogersville is still on cloud nine after the local team's first state football championship, which, as Matt Schoch of the Springfield News-Leader writes, was years in the making.
• Allyus Fritz of the Columbia Missourian shows us how wrestling is a family tradition for Hickman coach J.D. Coffman, whose Kewpies are in town tonight and tomorrow for the Parkway South Tournament.
• This column from Dion Clisso from PrepsKC is a bit dated now, but still worth sharing as he touts Kansas City as an area that should probably have some more state championships contested there.
