Les Schwab Invitational Starts Today
Now in its 23rd year, the Les Schwab Invitational has established itself as not only the top holiday tournament in the state of Oregon but one of the premier events in the entire country. From December 26 to 29, Liberty High School in Hillsboro will be the site of high level and extremely competitive basketball featuring essentially all of the top teams in the state of Oregon and a few select out-of-state participants.
“Crazy to believe that we are in year 23 of the Les Schwab Invitational – 15 at what has become the tournament’s home, Liberty High School in Hillsboro,” said tournament director Reggie Walker. “We are anticipating one of our best years to date with great team and individual talent from all parts of Oregon and of course nationally.”
Practically every top 6A state title contender and practically every NCAA Division I prospect will be participating in the event, including all three D-I signees. Despite a bit of a rough start, Jefferson remains the overall favorite and will bring the most talent-laden roster out of the in-state teams, led by senior Washington signee Marcus Tsohonis. Defending champions Grant have Vermont signee Aaron Deloney leading a perimeter-laded group, while Barlow also has a guard-oriented attack led by junior shooting star Jesse White. Lake Oswego and Jesuit are LSI staples and will be led by seniors Josh Angle and Justin Bieker respectively.
South Salem goes into the tournament with the top power ranking in the state and features the state’s third Division I fall signees in future Portland State Viking Jaden Nielsen-Skinner. West Linn and Central Catholic are both young but talented, and each has a top prospect with Micah Garrett (2020) for the Lions and Darius Gakwasi (2021) for the Rams. Southridge is back for another stint in the Schwab and is led by one of the state’s sleeper prospects in Brock Henry and Tigard is paced by the high-scoring Stevie Schlabach.
Two non-6A teams will be in the field, most notably 2A Columbia Christian. The Knights have one of the top college recruits on their roster, sophomore Ben Gregg. 5A powers Churchill will also be at Liberty this week, and the Lancers have a junior-laden squad with potential college players including Brian Goracke and Kaelan O’Neil. Also counting as a “local team” is Skyview from Vancouver, which is led by senior star Alex Schumacher.
As always, the out-of-state invitees are quite formidable. In store for fans and coaches in attendance will be the number-one ranked player in the country in Vernon Carey, as he and University School will be looking to take home some hardware. The Sharks also feature one of the top juniors in the country in Scottie Barnes. Sierra Canyon finished in second place in the LSI two years ago and is ready to take the next step this year with Cassius Stanley, Scotty Pippen Jr, Kenyon Martin Jr, and 7-foot-2 Chinese big man Jia-Hao Yu, who will be making his debut in the State at the LSI. Finally, Gonzaga Prep out of Spokane, Washington will look to make waves, led by Gonzaga signee Anton Watson.
All games will take place on the campus of Liberty High School in Liberty and the action starts at 9:00 am on Wednesday, December 26 and the full bracket can be found here, while tickets can be purchased here.