Team bracketed in T-Mobile Invitational

DAYTON DEANERY — Chaminade Julienne’s girl’s varsity basketball team will head to Albuquerque, N.M., over the holidays to play the nation’s top-ranked basketball programs.

The Lady Eagles are one of four girl’s teams bracketed for the T-Mobile National High School Basketball Invitational, taking place December 28-29 at the University of New Mexico’s University Arena. They will play the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits of Long Beach, Calif., on Dec. 28.

CJ’s opening game is slated for 11 a.m. MST on Versus Network. Tournament teams will be highlighted on the high school tab of USAToday.com beginning Dec. 3 through tournament’s end.

"We are very excited," said Marc Greenberg, CJ’s head coach. "We consider it an honor to be invited to the T-Mobile event and also being sponsored by the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS). They look for teams that will represent the association well on and off of the court.

"The invitation speaks to the reputation of the school, community and kids," he said. "We appreciate the opportunity to compete against top teams in the country."

The NFHS, tournament sponsor, seeks to fill the holiday tournament with eight of the nation’s top girls and boys teams chosen, in part, through the USA Today’s Super 25 high school basketball rankings. In addition to CJ, the other teams include host team, Gallup Bengals (Gallup, N.M)., Hampton Crabbers (Hampton, Va.), and Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits.

"We’re going to the tournament to improve our game and play top competition," said senior guard, Tiera Stephen. "Right now we are not looking ahead at playing a top-rated team, we are thinking about the next competition. We are taking things one game at a time."

CJ’s tournament roster includes seniors, Rachel Chandler (guard), Quentina Skipper (guard), Tiera Stephen (guard) and India Warfield (center); juniors, Katie Cronin (guard), Rachel Brun (guard), Tyesha Jones (guard), Dalynn Peters (forward) and Shene Fleming (guard/forward); and sophomores, Samarie Walker (forward) and Mileah Walker (center).

Team manager Jenny Nicholson, trainer Stepfanie Wolff, assistant coaches Alan

Hoskins, Mandy Meyers and Duane Williams and John Marshall, principal, round out the traveling team.