Barry Lewis: Hoops for Hope Festival to showcase Catholic teams
BY BARRY LEWIS World Sports Writer
Thursday, January 12, 2012
1/12/12 at 5:08 AM
A MAJOR SHOWCASE for the state's Catholic high school basketball powers will be held on Friday and Saturday at Cascia Hall.
The first Hoops for Hope Festival will feature boys and girls teams from Tulsa's Cascia Hall and Bishop Kelley along with Oklahoma City's McGuinness and Mount St. Mary.
The teams have combined for five state titles in the past six year. This season, McGuinness' boys and girls are each ranked No. 5 in 5A, Cascia's boys are No. 7 in 4A, Kelley's boys are No. 16 and girls are No. 8 in 5A, and St. Mary's boys are No. 4 and girls are No. 11 in 4A.
Friday's schedule has Kelley facing St. Mary at 4 p.m. (girls) and 5:30 (boys). followed by Cascia Hall and McGuinness at 7 (girls) and 8:30 (boys).
On Saturday, McGuinness plays Kelley at 11 a.m. (girls) and 12:30 p.m. (boys), followed by St. Mary against Cascia Hall at 2 (girls) and 3:30 (boys).
"The two middle schools from Oklahoma City and Tulsa would get together for tournaments so I thought why couldn't the high schools?" Cascia boys coach Brian Rahilly said. "We had played the last two years at Kelley's tournament and I love getting together with them, but we hated playing them because someone would lose. So (Kelley boys coach) Danny Limes and I talked and we thought it would be good for us to get together for a festival like this."
The festival is expected to rotate annually with St. Mary hosting next season, followed by Kelley and McGuinness.
So why is the event called Hoops for Hope?
"As a celebration of Catholic education and four great schools, I felt this needed to be about more than basketball," Rahilly said. "There had to be a service idea to it. I was very motivated after our faculty toured Catholic Charities last year."
No admission will be charged, but fans are asked to bring an item that can be donated to Catholic Charities in Tulsa. Those items include nonperishable food; baby items such as diapers and formula; blankets, soap, laundry detergent; and kids clothing such as coats, hats, gloves and socks.
Test for Eagles, Bruins: No. 14 Edison (7-0) will host ninth-ranked Bartlesville (10-1) on Friday night in a game that could decide a host site for a Class 6A boys basketball regional. Edison, which plays in the Green Country Conference that includes primarily 5A teams, scheduled the game with regional seedings in mind.
"We needed a nonconference game and (Bartlesville) Coach (Tim) Bart is a mentor of mine," Edison coach Michael Parish said. "Bartlesville is a good team and we wanted to improve our strength of schedule. This is a stepping-stone game for us. We're absolutely telling our players how important it is even though it's not a conference game."
Bartlesville is coming off a 65-33 win over Claremore on Tuesday. Jakob Hartsock, a 6-7 junior, had 31 points for Bartlesville as he was 4-of-5 on treys. Brigham Young head coach Dave Rose attended the game. Hartsock's brother, Noah, who was the World's 2006 state player of the year, is BYU's leading scorer.
Basketball notes: Coweta junior guard Ty Gunter continued his hot shooting with 25 points in a 74-50 win over Pryor on Tuesday. Gunter has 78 points in his last four games for the Tigers (9-1), who won the Bristow Tournament last week for the second straight year...
Jeylyn Sharpe, a 6-3 junior, is averaging 23.4 points for Ketchum. Sharpe, who is averaging 10.6 rebounds, was a point guard last year but grew four inches and 25 pounds so he was moved to center.
Union honors Franks: Atlanta Falcons defensive back Dominique Franks and nine others will be inducted into the Union Athletic Department Hall of Fame at approximately 7:15 p.m. Friday, between the girls and boys basketball games against Muskogee at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center.
Franks was the Tulsa World's state football player of the year in 2005 and also was a basketball standout. Also being inducted is Brad Glenn, the World's metro baseball player of the year in 2005 and a football standout. Glenn is an outfielder in the Toronto Blue Jays organization,
Other inductees are Austin Chadwick (football), Blake Boswell and Greg Cox (tennis), Amanda Carreno (soccer), Danielle Gilchrist and Chelsea Holm (track and field), Todd Goddard (soccer) and Amy Calmus (pom coach).
Key excels in all-star game: Owasso quarterback Kason Key was named the West's offensive most valuable player in the Max Emfinger All-America Bowl on Saturday in Baton Rouge, La. Key completed 7-of-10 passes for 137 yards, including an 80-yarder for a touchdown. He also ran for another TD to lead the West to a 21-20 victory over the East.
"It was a really fun game," Key said. "The whole week was a good experience."
Key was the only player from Oklahoma in the game.
Ponca QB Wilson commits: Ponca City quarterback Brent Wilson committed to play football at Emporia State. Wilson was one of 6A's top quarterbacks as he passed for 2,746 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Preps by the Numbers: All basketball teams are encouraged to participate in the Tulsa World's Preps by the Numbers that will be published every Monday (boys) and Tuesday (girls) and online daily at tulsaworld.com. Each coach has been assigned a password that can be used to enter statistics on the World's website. For questions on passwords and how to send in statistics, contact Barry Lewis at 918-581-8393 or at barry.lewis@tulsaworld.com.
Original Print Headline: Hoops festival to showcase Catholic teams
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