Palisades High girls basketball coach Torino Johnson has assembled an elite field for the 11th annual Palisades Beach Invitational, which starts Monday in the large gym.
The 16-team tournament features three schools in the national top 10 preseason rankings: Santa Ana Mater Dei (No. 3), Los Angeles Windward (No. 5) and West Hills Chaminade (No. 6). Mater Dei will be making its first appearance in the tournament. Windward repeated as champion last season while Chaminade finished fifth.
“I’m really proud of the caliber of teams we have coming − the level of talent on the court will be unbelievable,” Johnson said. “We’re super excited to get the season started and we have high expectations. We’ll be going hard for the City Section championship.”
All but four teams in next week’s draw are ranked among the top 100 in California. The field also includes Southern Section powers Gardena Serra, West Torrance and Fullerton Troy and Bakersfield Garces from the Central Section. Troy was fourth and Garces sixth last year.
Rounding out the bracket are Palisades, Agoura, Marlborough, Mark Keppel, Oaks Christian, Palos Verdes, Taft, Long Beach Jordan and Riverside North.
The Dolphins open against Palos Verdes on Tuesday at 4 p.m., with the winner likely to face Mater Dei in the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Paced by Most Valuable P layer Jordin Canada, now the freshman point guard at UCLA, Windward beat Palisades in the second round on its way to winning the tournament last winter. Palisades wound up finishing in eighth place.
The Dolphins finished in a three-way tie for first place in 2008 and won the tournament outright in 2010 and 2011.
The semifinals will be played at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. next Friday, the consolation final (ninth place) will be at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday (Nov. 29) and the championship game will tip off at 8:30 p.m. next Saturday. There will be no games on Thanksgiving.
The Palisades High boys basketball team begins its second season under head coach Vejas Anaya tomorrow in Long Beach against Rancho Dominguez (JV at 2 p.m. and varsity at 3:30).
The Dolphins play in the El Segundo, Beverly Hills and La Salle tournaments in December and begin Western League play Jan. 12 at Hamilton.
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