New holiday tournament set for AHS

ASHEBORO — A beautifully renovated gymnasium remaining empty during the Christmas holidays just didn’t sound right, so Asheboro High School and Sportstone will present the first Sportstone.net Christmas Invitational Dec. 27-29 at AHS.

Five of the eight Randolph County teams will participate in the holiday basketball tournament with three teams coming in from outside the county.

Randleman, Trinity, Southwestern Randolph, Asheboro and Providence Grove will represent Randolph County while Eastern Guilford, West Brunswick and the North Carolina Leadership Academy from Kernersville will make up the eight team field.

Both the girls and boys teams from each school will participate.

“We had talked about it after The Courier fell off, but with the renovations, we knew we couldn’t do it for a few years,” AHS’ Brian Nance said. “Davidson County wanted to do something so we split up our schools. The issue there was teams told you at the last minute they weren’t going to be a part of it and you had to scramble for teams. And then some girls teams wanted in and the boys didn’t and some boys teams wanted in and the girls didn’t.”

Nance said AHS officials contacted a few of the county teams to gauge interest and the first few teams which responded gained entry into the new tournament.. 

“The big thing with the coaches is they didn’t want it to become a conference tournament, so we said we’d only take a few teams,” Nance said of the seven-team Piedmont Athletic Conference.

Sportstone.net jumped on board after it was determined there would be a tournament at AHS.

“I reached out to Wes (AHS Athletic Director Wes Berrier) and Brian to see if they were going to do a Christmas tournament and asked if they needed a sponsor and one thing led to another,” said Tony Wright, owner of Sportstone.net.

There will be eight games each of the three days with girls games starting what has turned out to be a girls-boys doubleheader on the first day of competition. The RHS girls will meet Eastern Guilford at 10 a.m. on that Wednesday followed by the RHS and EG boys at approximately 11:30 a.m. The Trinity and West Brunswick girls will tip off at about 1 p.m., followed by the THS and WB boys at about 2:30 p.m. 

The SWR and NCLA girls will play at about 4 p.m., followed by the SWR and NCLA boys at about 5:30 p.m. The final two games will feature the girls from AHS and Providence Grove at about 7 p.m. and the AHS and PG boys after.

“We want to do a lot like The Courier did, but we figured with everyone having to set up and clean up, three long days would be better than six with breaks,” Nance said of the former tournament, which had the girls tournament before Christmas and the boys tournament after.

Consolation games as well as the semifinals will be held Thursday and Championship Day is set for Friday with the girls title game set for 7 p.m. and the boys title game at 8:30 p.m.

Admission is $10 per day, with that ticket good for all eight games that day and night.

WEDNESDAY, DEC 27

GIRLS SCHEDULE

10 a.m. — Randleman vs E Guilford

1 p.m.   — Trinity vs West Brunswick

4 p.m.   — SW Randolph vs NCLA

7 p.m.   — Asheboro vs Providence Grove

BOYS SCHEDULE

11:30 a.m. — Randleman vs E Guilford

2:30 p.m. — Trinity vs West Brunswick

5:30 p.m. — SW Randolph vs NCLA

8:30 p.m. — Asheboro vs Providence Grove

THURSDAY, DEC. 28

GIRLS SCHEDULE

10 a.m. — L 10 a.m.  vs L 1 p.m.

1 p.m. — L 4 p.m. vs L 7:p.m.

4 p.m. — W 10 a.m. vs W 1 p.m.

7 p.m. — W 4 p.m. vs W 7 p.m.

BOYS SCHEDULE

11:30 a.m. —  L 11:30 a.m. vs L 2:30 p.m.

2:30 p.m. — L 5:30 p.m. vs L 8:30 p.m.

5:30 p.m. — W 11:30 a.m. vs W 2:30 p.m.

8:30 p.m. — W 5:30 p.m. vs W 8:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, DEC 29

GIRLS SCHEDULE

10 a.m. — L 10 a.m.  vs L 1 p.m. (Seventh Place)

1 p.m. — W 10 a.m. vs W 1 p.m. (Fifth Place)

4 p.m. — L 4 p.m. vs L 7 p.m. (Third Place)

7 p.m. — W 4 p.m. vs. W 7 p.m. (Championship)

BOYS SCHEDULE

11:30 a.m. —  L 11:30 a.m. vs L 2:30 p.m. (Seventh Place)

2:30 p.m. — W 11:30 a.m. vs W 2:30 p.m. (Fifth Place)

5:30 p.m. — L 5:30 p.m. vs L 8:30 p.m. (Third Place)

8:30 p.m. — W 5:30 p.m. vs W 8:30 p.m. (Championship)