Basketball tourneys slated this weekend in Southwest Oklahoma

High school basketball fans across Oklahoma will welcome 2024 with numerous tournaments including three within The Constitution coverage area.

The Jeff Hart Memorial Tournament will run three days starting at 10:45 a.m. today at the Great Plains Coliseum with Chattanooga, Central High, Fletcher, Cement and Navajo among the area teams competing.

Just 20 miles north in Apache, the Slick Hills Invitational sponsored by the Apache Rattlesnake Featival will run three days as well with a busy eight-game schedule starting at 11 a.m. each day. The host Warriors, Walters, Hobart and Big Pasture are the area teams in the field.

And further north on Highway 62 the Midfirst Warrior Classic will run three days as well at the Anadarko Warrior Fieldhouse with first games at 10 a.m. That field includes area programs Cache and Anadarko on the boys side while those two schools along with Eisenhower will be competing in the girls bracket.

Complete first-round pairings for those three tournaments can be found in the scoreboard on Page 2B,

At the Coliseum, both Chattanooga teams are seeded No. 1 at the top of both the girls and boys bracket. The Chatty girls are ranked 13th in Class B with a 10-2 record and will face Cement in the opener today. The Chatty boys are 8-4 and seeded No. 1 and will face Cement at 12:05 p.m.

At Apache the newest school in the field, Vanoss, comes is as the top seed after being ranked 9th in Class 2A with a 12-2 record. Hobart girls are 8-0 and ranked 17th in 2A and Hollis girls are also a strong title contender as the No. 2 seed.

On the boys side at the Apache Events Center, Hobart’s No.-7 ranked Bearcats at the top seed and will face the OKC Knights at 12:20 p.m. today. Other ranked boys teams are No. 18 Apache (2A) and No. 15 Big Pasture from Class B.

The boys field at the Midfirst Classic in Anadarko features the No. 6-ranked host Warriors meeting OKC Storm in the finale tonight at 8:30 p.m. No. 16 in 5A is Classen and it comes in as No. 2 seed behind El Reno.

Cache boys are unranked but they were able to win two straight for the consolation title in the SOI in Duncan right before the holidays. Zach Ange’s Bulldogs are unranked but they played No. 1 Weatherford about as close as anyone right before the Christmas break.