Billy Thomas and Immanuel Christian did such a good job organizing the school’s first Christmas basketball tournament that this year’s event came together quickly.
“A lot of schools heard about it and called early, early in the spring and wanted to be a part of it this year,” said Thomas, the boys basketball coach at Immanuel Christian. “We have teams from different areas coming and a few more public schools that have jumped in and wanted to be a part of it. We’re excited about that and look forward to some really good competitions.”
The three-day, round-robin tournament will kick off Tuesday and will feature public and private schools from Mississippi and Alabama.
The Immanuel Christian boys (9-3) will play at 9 and 10 a.m. Tuesday against Tupelo Academy and Scott County and again at 7 p.m. against Kosciusko. The Immanuel Christian girls will play at noon and at 6 p.m. Tuesday against East Webster and Hebron Christian.
Thomas said he was fortunate to have a number of quality teams participate last season and was able to match them up to provide plenty of close games. He said there were only a handful of games that were decided by double-digit margins. He hopes for the same competitiveness this season in the 28-game event.
“My boys learned some things (from last year’s tournament),” Thomas said. “Our players love basketball. When they’re not playing they are working the tournament because it is a fundraiser for them. The guys and girls really put this on and as coaches we were all pretty pleased with how they did everything.
“We had several teams come in with losing records and they had really been pounded, but they played different teams (at the Immanuel Christian tournament) and coming out in January they were whole different teams. The more competition you play against, the more you learn to step up your game. I had four teams I know of that told me coming to this tournament made all of the difference in their season, not because they played us, but because of the other opponents in the tournament. It was not just a success for our team, but for all of the teams in the tournament. I want to believe it is going to be the same this year for the other teams and ours as well.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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