It was determined this weekend that the Notre Dame girls basketball team would once again have the top seed in the annual First State Community Bank Holiday Classic, which begins this Sunday at the Show Me Center.
The Bulldogs (3-0) have won the Holiday Classic three years in a row now, and last season they beat each of their three opponents by 13 points or more. This included a 55-42 win over last season’s Class 1 state runner-ups Delta in the championship game.
The Bobcats (5-0) officially earned the No. 2 seed behind Notre Dame, while Jackson (3-2) received the No. 3 seed.
The Indians, who fell to Delta 68-53 in the semifinals, took third place in last year’s Holiday Classic after beating Saxony Lutheran 51-23 on the final day. The Crusaders (2-2) have been seeded fifth this year behind No. 4 seed Oran (1-1).
There’s only one more team in this year’s tournament as Woodland (1-5) earned the No. 6 seed after failing to win a game in the Holiday Classic last season. The Cardinals fell to champions Notre Dame 55-25 and third-place Jackson 54-36.
Instead of regular bracket play, the tournament will once again be played in round-robin fashion.
On Sunday, Notre Dame and Oran will officially tip off the Holiday Classic at 3:30 p.m., followed up by Delta versus Saxony at 5 p.m. and lastly Jackson against Woodland at 6:30 p.m.
Oran and Woodland will face off to start up day two of the tournament 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Notre Dame will then face Saxony Lutheran at 6 p.m. as Delta versus Jackson will be the night cap at 7:30 p.m.
The six teams will then be paired off to compete for the championship, third place and consolation championship with fifth place starting at 4:30 p.m. Third place is scheduled for 6 p.m. with the title game set for 7:30 p.m.
Two weeks ago, Notre Dame won the SEMO Conference Tournament for the fourth-straight season by beating Jackson 40-30 in the championship game. The Bulldogs are currently only allowing 29.3 points per game and return 6-foot-1 senior guard Tori Rubel from last year’s Holiday Classic All-Tournament team.
In the conference tournament, Rubel averaged 14 points, five rebounds, four steals, 3.6 assists and 2.3 3-pointers made per game. Tori had 15 points (two 3s), five rebounds, five assists and three steals against the Indians in the title game.
