PC ready to defend tourney title

Parkers Chapel’s second holiday basketball tournament, this year called Jammin at the Jack, tips off Thursday and runs through Saturday. The host Lady Trojans are the defending champions and will head a solid girls’ bracket of teams.

“This year’s field of teams is going to make for a good quality tournament,” said Parkers Chapel coach Justin Welch. “We were able to get eight teams to commit pretty quickly and even had to turn a couple of teams down because we were full by the time they reached out to us.”

Taylor, last year’s runner-up, returns to the tournament and will face Hampton in the opening round. Strong will play Starks (La.) with Hermitage meeting Haynesville (La.). The Lady Trojans will host Smackover in the first round.

“We were able to get two teams from Louisiana,” said Welch. “One of those, Starks, seems to be a really good team. From what I’ve seen, they really get after you from a defensive aspect. Then we have Taylor coming back. Last year, we ended up playing them in the finals. They very well could end up back in the finals again this year. They’re pretty talented from what I’ve seen of them.

“All of the teams are getting better as the season continues and they are doing what it takes to get better, which is getting into holiday tournaments like ours. We’re glad that they chose to come to our place.”

The action begins Thursday at 10 a.m. with Taylor against Hampton. Strong plays Starks at 12:30 p.m. Hermitage meets Haynesville at 3 and PC and Smackover play at 5:30 p.m. Loser’s bracket games start Friday at 10 a.m. with the semifinals scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. The championship game will be played Saturday at 5:30 p.m.