COLUMBUS — High school basketball resumed shortly after Christmas with several holiday tournaments taking place over the weekend. Several area schools returned to the court, including a local showcase hosted by the Mississippi University for Women.

Caledonia continued its impressive campaign with a 62-50 win against Hatley in the Friendly City Winter Classic, which was hosted at MUW’s Pohl Gymnasium on Friday. Head coach Jonathan Comer saw his team improve to 12-2 on the season thanks to another well-rounded performance. 

Cavaliers guard Chris Blevins once again led the Cavaliers on the scoresheet, totaling 22 points against the Tigers. The tally equals his personal best for the season and was his fifth game in a row reaching double figures. Ethan Halbert and Gary Smart joined him in double digits and Issac Williams was named player of the game. 

West Point was also set to participate in the Friendly City weekend action before Saturday cancellations interrupted their plans. The boys and girls teams were scheduled to play on Saturday in the late afternoon slot but the remaining games were canceled due to the approaching bad weather. 

Heritage boys basketball also saw their Saturday classic game canceled but won 69-53 against Itawamba on Friday. The Patriot girls played out their game on Friday as well, dropping a close contest in a 50-48 loss to Hatley. 

New Hope also hosted a tournament, the Trojan Holiday Classic, and though the Saturday slate was also delayed by severe weather in Lowndes County the Trojans played their games on Sunday. The boys defeated Sipsey Valley 53-52 and Holmes County Central 54-48 to improve to 9-6 on the season while the girls moved to 7-4 after losing to Hillcrest 74-32. 

Elsewhere in Mississippi, Starkville faced off against opponents from the coast and from Alabama in a holiday tournament in Gulfport. The Jackets went 3-0 against the opposition to win the tournament and improve to 15-3 on the season, defeating Oxford (Alabama) 54-48 on Boxing Day, Ocean Springs 63-34 on Friday and hosts Gulfport 65-48 on Saturday to head home with some hardware. Jaden Tate was named MVP of the final with 20 points and five steals while TJ Warren was named to the All-Tournament team. Warren posted 14 points, four assists, four rebounds and three steals in the win over Gulfport.

The Jacket girls also had a successful weekend, improving to 11-5 on the year after taking down Brandon 49-35 and Terry 41-22 in their weekend trip to Madison Central for the Jungle Bells Classic. Zariyah Edwards continued her impressive campaign to win MVP in both games, posting 16 and 14 points respectively to lead the Jackets to victory.