St. James Invitational

The Saint James Invitational Basketball Tournament will be held Thursday, February 14 - Saturday, February 16 in the school's Alumni Hall Field House in St. James, MD (near Hagerstown). Games begin at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

This year's participants:

Saint James School (host)

Notre Dame Academy, Middlesburg, VA

Thomas Johnson High School, Frederick, MD

St. John's at Prospect Hall, Frederick, MD

Montrose Christian Academy, Rockville, MD

Riverdale Baptist, Upper Marlboro, MD

National Christian Academy, Fort Washington, MD

Laurinburg Institute, Laurinburg, NC

Four of these mostly DC-area schools are currently in the Washington Post's top 20 poll.

Thomas Johnson is in 2nd place with a 16-1 record. They are led by combo guard Jermaine Thomas, who signed with La Salle. He's currently averaging 24 points per game

National Christian is in 6th place with a 20-4 record. Coach Trevor Brown has a squad of top players including seniors Jabbar Young (West Virginia) and Charlie Bell (Loyola, MD) and junior Keith Blanks.

Notre Dame Academy is a couple slots down in 8th place with an 18-2 record. Coach Larry Cullinane's team held onto first oplace in the Post poll for a couple weeks this season. His charges are lead by senior guards Todd Galloway (Florida State) and Daevon Haskins (Rutgers). Both players moved to the rural Virginia campus from Baltimore.

Montrose Christian slipped to 9th place from 5th following last week's loss to NCA. Stu Vetter's team, which last year featured NC State's Levi Watkins (who will redhsirt following a season-ending ACL injury), now has an intriguing big man in junior center Linas Kleiza. Their record is 17-4.Meanwhile Laurinburg Institute, while from North Carolina, has a local flavor. Lauinburg is coached by Chris Chaney, who led his Newport School to the tournament finals last season. His team competed this past weekend at the 2002 National Prep School Invitational in Rhode Island where they were led by Baltimore native Terrence Whiters (Loyola, IL) and DC-native Cortez Davis.

Last year, Oak Hill Academy was tested by an undersized Newport Prep in the finals before grabbing the championship.

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Thanks to Fen Brown of our affiliate DCHoops.com for help with this article.