O'Fallon, Borgia, Alton are early winners

The high school basketball season got underway last week with some pretty good Thanksgiving Holiday tournament action.
The most impressive performers last week were the O'Fallon Panthers, who won the championship of the Methodist Medical Center Invitational Thanksgiving Tournament in Peoria. Coming off a 13-16 record in '09, the Panthers go the new season started in fine style by going 4-0 against a talented field of teams put together by director Shawn Powell.
O'Fallon defeated Little Rock Hall 81-80 to win the title in a double-overtime thriller. Junior swingman Roosevelt Jones scored a game-high 26 points for O'Fallon. The 6'4" Jones was named the Most Valuable Player for the tournament. Junior Shane Watson added 18 points for the Panthers with Chevaughn Lawrence chpping in with 14.
O'Fallon also defeated Springfield (Ill.), Sherman (Tex.) and Peoria Notre Dame on its way to the title.

St. Francis Borgia won the championship of its own Turkey Tournament with a 75-54 victory over Maplewood in a battle of state-championship teams. Senior forward Nathan Scheer of Borgia was the MVP of the tournament after averaging more than 25 points a game.
In the third-place game, Pacific defeated Washington 62-52 while U. City defeated Wellston 100-70 for third place. In the seventh place game, Carnahan defeated Union 59-56. It was the first victory as a varsity program for Carnahan, which played a junior varsity schedule last season as a first-year program.
Scheer headed the all-tournament team which also included Tyler Ressell (Borgia), Bryton Hobbs, Calvin Belts, Jr. and freshman Kevin Baker (Maplewood), Ben McLemore (Wellston), Travon Williams (University City), Jordan Stapp (Washington), Alex Rolwig (Union) and Chris Jackson (Pacific).
After winning its own tournament, Borgia will go through a ambitious two week stretch against the likes of Whitfield, Jefferson City Helias, Chaminade, CBC and St. Charles West all in succession.

The Alton Redbirds won their own Alton Tip-Off Classic with a 60-51 victory over Southwestern Conference rival Belleville East. LeVaughn McDouglar took home MVP honors for the Redbirds, who also defeated Vashon, Roosevelt and Carbondale in the tournament.
Senior guard Montinez Knight scored 14 points, but 11 of them came in the pivotal third quarter when Alton took total control of the game. Dorian Scruggs led Alton with 17 points. C.J. Goldthree led Belleville East with 13 points.
The all-tournament team was McDouglar, Tony Bradley and Mikkel Lumpkins of Alton, Thomas Poston, Sean Pettiford and Joe Gilmore of Belleville East, Conner Wheeler and Ty Neal of Carbondale, Saladin Smith and Antonio "Flip" Hopkins of Vashon.

Metro East Lutheran won its own Thanksgiving tournament with a 52-43 victory over East Alton Wood River in the championship game. Senior forward Bob Schnietz scored 24 points to lead ME Lutheran in the finals. The 6'3" senior had a huge tournament, averaging 27 points in the four games.

Triad defeated Breese Mater Dei 71-61 to win the Waterloo/Triad Round Robin. Senior forward Travis Felex scored a game-high 26 points to lead Triad. Mater Dei was led by sophomore shooting whiz Cory Arensten's 15 points.

Centralia won the Jacksonville Round Robin with a 4-1 record. Collinsville also had a 4-1 record in the tournament, but the Orphans got the tourney win by virtue of their victory over the Kahoks in the opening game.

There's plenty of good action on tap this week as the Pattonville, Vianney, Whitfield Tournaments get underway as does the Southside Classic.
The big game to watch today will be the battle of Class 3 state contenders Whitfield and Cardinal Ritter in the first game of the Whitfield Round Robin. It should be a good one.
Heading the field at Pattonville are defending Class 5 state-champion Chaminade along with Metro Catholic Conference rival CBC. McCluer, Jennings and Lafayette are also excellent programs in the field.
Hazelwood Central got the top seed a Vianney. Also watch out for the host Golden Griffins, Fort Zumwalt South, Clayton, Eureka and Riverview Gardens.