McDonald’s Texas Invitational D2
The Texas Invitational is one of the state’s top events and the tournament features some of the best talent, on both sides, boys and girls, in not only Texas but the country itself. It’s broken down into a couple of…
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Continue ReadingThe Texas Invitational is one of the state’s top events and the tournament features some of the best talent, on both sides, boys and girls, in not only Texas but the country itself. It’s broken down into a couple of divisions, 16 teams in both D1 and D2, and I had a chance to catch some talented players from both divisions. Memorial has shown fight in every event I’ve caught them playing in and their youth have stepped up in a major way with freshmen Abigail Tomaski and Riley McCloskey making immediate impacts already and I’m really thinking about how strong this squad will be a couple of seasons from now because more is coming and I caught part of their game against a talented Clear Falls squad
Niah Richard & Riley McCloskeyClear Falls has shown their power and explosiveness and could play the role of a spoiler when playoffs come around. I was impressed with their squad when I caught them a few weeks ago but they were without senior Niah Richard who added scoring and defense throughout the event and was named to the All-Tournament squad after helping lead her team to the Gold championship in Division 2
Dezaree Walker & Enriqua Bellow
Angleton vs Deer Park was another D2 game that I purposely wanted to catch for a number of reasons that reach back into yesteryear, before social media and much of the nonsense I see floating across it. Angleton’s head coach Dominique Thomas is one of the areas greatest point guards to play and her ability to make her teammates better falls into that second to none category. On the flip, I never had a chance to see Deer Park’s head coach Theresa White play but she and her sister are legends based on numerous people I actually believe. Coach White also ran Hoop School back in the day, which focused on that lost art, fundamentals and game situation. Juniors Dezaree Walker and Selena Chaney left lasting first impressions and showed they are more than next-level players. Walker creates her shot and hits the midrange effortlessly while Chaney is an athletic nightmare to defend, I’m not exagerating. Deer Park’s Celeste Lemus, a junior, has shown me time and time again she can score multiple ways and after watching Enriqua Bellow as a freshman, I saw plenty of potential from the point guard and her poise and consistency as a junior definitely stood out as she ran her team, took over when needed