Field set: Annual McDonald's Basketball Tournament has good mix of basketball teams
The field for the 13th Annual McDonald's Classic Basketball Tournament is set.
The five-team girls field includes Americas, Mt. Zion Academy from Lanham, Maryland, Sachse (Texas) High School, Princeton (Texas) High School from Princeton, Texas, and C. E. King High School from Houston.
The eight-team boys basketball tournament includes four teams from El Paso in Eastlake, El Paso High, Pebble Hills and Bel Air. Four out of town teams will be in the field, including Justin Northwest, Mt. Zion Academy from Lanham, Maryland, Odessa High, and Arizona Compass School from Chandler, Arizona.
The tournament will be held Nov. 30-Dec. 2. On Thursday, Nov. 30, there will be games at Eastlake, El Paso High, Pebble Hills, Bel Air and Americas.
The Princeton girls coach is Carla Denning, who is from El Paso and played collegiately at New Mexico State and is making a second trip to the tournament for Denning and her team. Sachse went 27-10 last season, Mt. Zion went 21-11 last year, C. E. King went 22-10 last year and Americas is expected to compete for a District 1-6A title this season.
All four El Paso boys teams have high expectations for the playoffs. Eastlake has a new coach in Matthew Taylor, Bel Air has been a consistent playoff participant under coach Rob Dibler, El Paso High returns a strong nucleus under coach Luis Celaya and Pebble Hills figures to be improved under second-year coach David Hernandez.
Lubbock Monterey won the girls championship last season and Shabach Christian Academy from Baltimore, Maryland, won the boys title in 2022.
All the El Paso coaches and several players talked on Tuesday at press conference about the opportunity in front of them at the McDonald's Tourney, which has featured such standouts as Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaylen Hands, Julius Randle, Aaliyah Chavez and Juju Watkins.
More: HS Basketball News See how Franklin continued its winning ways on Tuesday at Hanks
Felix F. Chavez can be reached at fchavez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on X (Formerly Twitter)
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 13th Annual McDonald's Basketball Tournament is set in El Paso
