In the three years since its inception, the Hamilton Christian Showdown on the Lake tournament has become one of the biggest and best in the state.
This year’s field features 16 teams from around the state and a handful of Division I signees.
Defending champion Scotlandville pulled out of the tournament after qualifying for the Division I state championship game in football. That game will be played Friday night.
Returning to the field are the second, third and fourth place finishers from last year — Lafayatte Christian, Madison Prep and Landry-Walker. Five teams in the field — Ouachita, Washington-Marion, Wossman, Peabody and Lafayette Christian played in the Top 28 tournament last year.
Tonight’s first round features a Top 28 rematch between Wossman and Peabody. Wossman won the Top 28 game on a half-court buzzer beater by C.J. Jones.
“Coach (Cedric) Smith (of Peabody) told me they would like a shot at Wossman,” said Hamilton coach Dexter Washington. “I told that to (Wossman coach) Casey Jones, who said he has never backed down from a challenge, so we have kind of a call-out game. It is probably the highlight game of the first round.”
Peabody is led by guard Cedric Russell, a UL-Lafayette signee. Other Division I basketball signees to be featured in the tournament are Madison Prep’s Josh Anderson (Western Kentucky), Lafayette Christian’s Galen Alexander (LSU) and Caleb Starks (Northwestern State), and Carroll’s Larry Owens (Northwestern State). Hamilton’s Kenan Fontenot has committed to play football at Grambling and Washington-Marion’s Christian Edwards has signed a track and field scholarship to Alabama.
Washington said there are at least a handful of other players that will be college players.
“Madison Prep has Kobe Julien, Josh Leblanc and Jharon Whitfield; LCA has Greg Williams, W-M has Devantre Vitor, LaGrange has J’Son Brooks and Marshall Sweet, and I have Camren Hare who some schools are looking at,” he said.
“A tournament like this helps unsigned kids get exposure. I have been here 16 years and we have more talent in Lake Charles now than we have ever had. We are going to show that Southwest Louisiana is serious about the roundball, just like with football.”
The tournament opens today with four games at Hamilton and four games at the Lake-Charles Boston gym, which was spruced up earlier this year.
“The summer cleaning team went in there and did a great job, it might be the most beautiful gym in Calcasieu Parish now,” Washington said.
LaGrange plays Ouachita at 4 p.m. in the first game at LC-B.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said LaGrange head coach Nathaniel Perry. “We get to test and see how we can actually hold our own against the best teams in the state. We open up against Ouachita, a 5A power house. We have to be prepared for them. We’re going to test and see early what we need to work on in order to get ready for when we actually make the playoffs.”
That will be followed by Landry-Walker/Lincoln Prep at 5:30 p.m., Richwood/Fair Park at 7 p.m. and Carroll/Lafayette Christian at 8:30 p.m.
At Hamilton, Madison Prep plays DeRidder in the opener at 4 p.m. followed by Wossman/Peabody at 5:30 p.m., Hamilton/Carver at 7 p.m. and Washington-Marion/St. Martinville at 8:30 p.m.
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