3 Takeaways From the Sandra Meadows Girls Basketball Invitational Girls Basketball at Duncanville
The 74th annual Sandra Meadows Girls Basketball Invitational took place in Duncanville, Texas, Dec. 26-28, and Arkansas’ power Conway made went 5-0, including a 44-40 victory over Boswell (Texas) in the championship game.
High School On SI Texas was on hand to witness action. Here are 3 Takeaways from the event.
After watching Duncanville and Desoto run roughshod over Class 6A in Texas and the entire state the last couple of seasons, many people came into this season wondering who the beast of Texas would be in girls basketball. If the Sandra Meadows Invitational, which featured 21 teams ranked in the top 20 in their various classifications including Class 4A number one Lincoln and Class 6A number one Fort Worth Boswell, is any indication, the race for state championships in Texas is wide open this season.
Lincoln, which entered the tournament 23-0 with wins over Denton Guyer, Denton Braswell and South Grand Prairie, all whom are in the top 10 of the Class 6A rankings, lost back-to-back games to St. Francis of Atlanta and Frisco Liberty while exposing a couple of chinks in their armor. Boswell, despite winning four of their five games in three days while finishing runner-up in the tournament to Conway (AK), didn’t look the part of a dominant number one ranked team, as four of their five games were hard-fought battles.
Behind the guard play of Emerie Bohanon and Samyah Jordan and the outstanding coaching and leadership of multiple state championship winning head coach Ashley Hutchcraft the Lady Wampus Cats of Conway won the 2024 Sandra Meadows Invitational. The tournament win is huge for the program as they have finished runner-up the last three seasons with lost to the host team Duncanville each year.
Conway won all four of their pre final rounds games by 11 points or more while scoring 66.5 points per game behind a consistent defense which caused 15 plus turnovers a game and a very efficient offense which constantly got good shots no matter the time, situation or opponent. Conway road the backs of Bohanon, who was named tournament MVP, and Jordan, who was named the Defensive MVP of the tournament, all weekend long with both making big plays in their upset win over nationally ranked Boswell in the tournament final game.
The Lady Wampus Caps gritty play from top to bottom along with their ability to execute the high level and efficient game plans of Hutchcraft make them a huge problem for the entire state of Arkansas. By beating some of the best teams in the nation this weekend, it is very apparent why Conway is considered the consensus number ranked team and the front runner to win a another state championship in the “Natural State”
Despite coming up short in their quest to win the Sandra Meadows Invitational and playing each other in a wire-to-wire classic for third place, both St. Francis (Georgia) and Pearland (Houston) had outstanding weekends.
First let’s start off with St. Francis who rode the outstanding guard play of junior point guard Cam Golston and the efficient post play of center and William & Mary commit Ameila Basit to a third place finish. St. Francis’ big win over nationally ranked Lincoln (Dallas) who entered the game with a 23-0 record highlights why the Lady Knights are poised to make a big push to three-peat in Georgia. As St. Francis despite trailing most of the game were able to figure Lincoln out and expose their weakness while going on 20-6 run late in the third quarter to take the lead and never look back.
This type of win, their ability to adjust on the fly, combined with the winning DNA their program has from top to bottom should put all teams in Georgia on red alert as its going to take a special effort to take the crown away from the Lady Knights.
Pearland also had an outstanding showing as they became the first-team to beat Duncanville in this tournament in six years by beating the Pantherettes in an overtime thriller 68-63 in the quarterfinals. Sophomore guard A’Zyua Blair had her coming out party against Duncanville busting the host team with 30 points and hitting three big free throws to send the game to overtime.
Despite being in a gym with some of the best players in the nation, Blair showed why she’s one of the best sophomore point guards in the nation and why behind her leadership and consistent play why Pearland will be an extremely tough out in the playoffs come February.
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