Bossier, Wossman, Calvary basketball teams headline 81st Bossier Invitational
Jimmy Watson
Depending on your point of view, this week’s 81st Bossier Invitational Tournament is the last or the first.
Tipping off Wednesday with a three-game set, the elder statesman of area basketball tournaments is the last regular season such event of the 2020-21 school year and the first of 2021. And for the first time in the recent history of the event, there won’t be a champion crowned on Saturday night. Instead, the 12 teams will compete in a round-robin affair with host Bossier playing each of the four days.
Among the top teams in the event are Class 3A No. 1 Wossman (10-1), Class 3A No. 3 and defending state champion Bossier (7-4) and Division IV No. 4 and state runner-up Calvary (11-4). Several of the top players in the state will be competing, including Wossman’s Patrick Williams, Bossier’s Joseph Manning, Homer’s D’anthony Kimble and Calvary’s Daniel Ortiz and La’Bree Williams Jr.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only 194 tickets ($8 each) per session will be sold and passes will not be accepted. Tournament officials are also selling 125 all-session passes for $40. Those will be sold beginning Tuesday in the school’s main office.
The gym will be cleared and sanitized between each session. Some days have more than one session, including Saturday when five games will be played after Red River was added to play Wossman in place of Madison Prep, which dropped out over the weekend.
Bossier has won the tournament title three consecutive years, topping Huntington 84-51 last year. The Raiders are not in the field this year.
Twitter: @JimmyWatson6