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Here’s your guide to Mohawk Valley holiday basketball tournaments

jon rathbun, herkimer times telegram
·5 min read

With the end-of-year holiday season comes a break from school and with that break comes a slew of high school basketball tournaments. With Christmas and New Year's falling on Mondays this year, those tournaments are spread over four days at numerous locations in and around the Mohawk Valley.

Tournaments tip off Wednesday at Cooperstown, Little Falls, Madison and West Canada Valley with area teams also traveling to East Syracuse-Minoa, Northville and Unadilla Valley. Edmeston, Fabius-Pompey and Tully have tournaments with local teams starting Thursday, and Oriskany and Rome Free Academy have events starting Friday.

The season introduces another event at Utica's Nexus Center, a three-day invitational with numerous boys and girls teams playing one or two games at Utica University's new downtown venue. Thursday, Friday and Saturday offer day-long schedules.

Here is a quick look at a few of the week's basketball tournaments:

Downtown Classic at Nexus Center

The 21-game three-day showcase features teams from across the state, 27 of them from Section III. Proctor and Cicero-North Syracuse get things started Thursday at 11:45 a.m. as the first of that day's seven boys games. New Hartford plays Section II Guilderland at 2:45 p.m., the Utica Academy of Science follows with a game against Amsterdam then Rome Free Academy takes on Albany High before Little Falls plays Holland Patent at 7:15 p.m., and Frankfort-Schuyler meets Duanesburg in the 8:45 p.m. nightcap.

Proctor's Ronny Perez (23) and Whitesboro's Colin Steere collide during a Dec. 15 game. Perez and the Raiders play the opening game of the Nexus Center's three-day Downtown Classic Thursday.
Proctor's Ronny Perez (23) and Whitesboro's Colin Steere collide during a Dec. 15 game. Perez and the Raiders play the opening game of the Nexus Center's three-day Downtown Classic Thursday.

Vernon-Verona-Sherill plays the Friday opener against Schalmont from Section II Schalmont. Frankfort-Schuyler and Waterville follow with Proctor and the Utica Academy of Science meeting at 2:45 p.m. New Hartford takes on Amsterdam at 7:15 p.m. and the day ends with Holland Patent and Clinton taking the court.

The boys have only four games Saturday, starting with the 10 a.m. contest between Little Falls and Lowville Academy. Vernon-Verona-Sherrill stats the evening session against Indian River at 5:30 p.m., followed by Dolgeville and West Canada Valley, and Herkimer against Notre Dame of Utica.

The New Hartford girls have two games scheduled as part of the event - Thursday at 10 a.m. against Clinton, and Friday at 10:15 a.m. against Bishop Ludden of Syracuse. Bishop Ludden returns Saturday for an 11:30 a.m. game against Central Valley Academy.

Daily tickets cost $10.95 with a three-day pass available for $19.95.

BOYS

West Canada Valley

West Canada Valley Sports Boosters Holiday Tournament most valuable player Jaylon O'Neal puts up a layup and draws a foul for Central Valley Academy duing the Dec. 29, 2022, championship game. O'Neal has graduated but the Thunder return to defend the tournament championship.
West Canada Valley Sports Boosters Holiday Tournament most valuable player Jaylon O'Neal puts up a layup and draws a foul for Central Valley Academy duing the Dec. 29, 2022, championship game. O'Neal has graduated but the Thunder return to defend the tournament championship.

Central Valley Academy travels to Newport as the two-time defending champion at West Canada Valley's annual holiday tournament. Central Valley Academy (5-1) plays Sauquoit Valley (5-3) in the first round Wednesday afternoon, and West Canada Valley (6-1) plays Mt. Markham (3-5) later in the day.

Cooperstown

Beaver River and a pair of Section IV teams - the combined Richfield Springs/Owen D. Young team and Delhi's Delaware Academy - travel to Cooperstown for the annual Dick White Tournament that starts Wednesday.

Beaver River (3-4) and Richfield Springs/Owen D. Young (6-1) play first in the first round, with Cooperstown (5-3) taking on Delaware Academy (2-2) later.

Elsewhere

Whitesboro (1-4) takes on the host school in Wednesday's second game at East Syracuse-Minoa (2-2). Baldwinsville (4-2) and Watertown (5-2) play earlier.

Madison (5-3) meets Oriskany (5-2) in its tournament's second game Wednesday after Morris (3-1) plays Stockbridge Valley (3-3) earlier.

Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville takes on Mayfield in Wednesday's tournament opener at Northville. The host school plays later against Wells.

Fort Plain meets Schenevus Thursday in the first game at Edmeston, and Edmeston later plays Oxford Academy.

The Fabius-Pompey booster club's tournament starts Thursday with Morrisville-Eaton playing Cincinnatus in the first game, and Fabius-Pompey opposing Otselic Valley in the second.

Herkimer and Randolph play the opening game Thursday at Tully with Tully squaring off against Cato-Meridian in the evening.

GIRLS

Amsterdam

The Amsterdam Rams host their three-day holiday showcase Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Utica's Notre Dame Jugglers will be the one Section III participant in the event that includes teams from section II, IV and IX, New York City, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Canada.

The Jugglers play the showcase opener against Amsterdam Wednesday at 10 a.m. and return Friday for a 5 p.m. game against Johnson City.

Cooperstown

The girls' division of the Dick White Tournament starts with Wednesday's game between Whitesboro (3-1) and Unatego (5-0), and sees Cooperstown (5-3) take on Hamilton (6-0) later.

Little Falls

Little Falls' annual Kasner Klassic brings a four-team field into town with play starting Wednesday. Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville (3-6) plays Central Valley Academy (4-1) in the opening game, and Little Falls (5-0) takes on Canajoharie (2-6) later.

Central Valley Academy's Izzy Terzioski (32) puts up a shot during the 2022 Kasner Klassic championship game against New Hartford. Terzioski and the Thunder return to Little Falls for this year's tournament.
Central Valley Academy's Izzy Terzioski (32) puts up a shot during the 2022 Kasner Klassic championship game against New Hartford. Terzioski and the Thunder return to Little Falls for this year's tournament.

Oriskany

The Holiday Hoops tournament starts Friday in Oriskany with Frankfort-Schuyler (3-4) playing Canastota (4-2) in the opener and Oriskany (2-4) meeting Madison (5-2) later in the evening.

Rome Free Academy

Rome Free Academy's boys and girls host the Miner Realty Basketball Invitational Friday and Saturday. The Rome Free Academy girls play Auburn Friday at 5:15 p.m. and Henninger Saturday at 6 p.m. Paired with those games are Friday's 7 p.m. game between Herkimer and Westmoreland, and a Saturday game between Sandy Creek and Westmoreland at noon.

The Rome Free Academy boys play the Albany Academy for boys Friday afternoon and the Syracuse Academy of Science Saturday.

Elsewhere

Richfield Springs/Owen D. Young plays Edmeston/Morris in Thursday's late game in Edmeston after South Kortright plays Union-Endicott in the tournament opener.

Other sports

The busy tournament schedule actually started in Holland Patent with Tuesday's junior varsity wrestling event. Cooperstown hosts a dual meet tournament with severel area teams Saturday, Central Valley Academy heads to Johnstown Thursday and Friday for the sprawling Mountain Duals, Morrisville-Eaton (Letchworth) and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (Spencerport) are also headed to two-day events, and Adirondack, Camden, Canastota and Holland Patent are all entered in the Spc. Kenneth Haines Memorial Tournament at SUNY-Oswego. Little Falls is among th schools that are scheduled to enter athletes in a girls tournament at Coxsackie-Athens.

Volleyball teams have multiple team events at Canastota and Morrisville-Eaton Thursday.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: holiday basketball tournaments in NY schedule