41ST ANNUAL BLOOMFIELD CHRISTMAS TOURNAMENT GETS UNDER WAY TODAY

The University High School Christmas Tournament isn't the only boys basketball event that will be held in Southeast Missouri over the holidays.

In fact, several other tournaments will get under way either today or in the next few days.

The 41st annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament begins today and runs through Tuesday; the Ste. Genevieve Tournament gets under way today and runs through Sunday; and the 11th annual Poplar Bluff Showdown begins Monday and runs through Wednesday.

Following is a brief look at each of those events:

* Two undefeated and state-ranked teams -- Class 2A Portageville and Class 3A Doniphan -- are the first and second seeds for the 16-team Bloomfield event.

East Carter County is third, with Kennett fourth, Hayti fifth, Twin Rivers sixth, Malden seventh and Dexter eighth.

Heading up the bottom eight are No. 9 Bloomfield, followed by Puxico, South Pemiscot, Greenville, Bernie, Richland, Van Buren and East Prairie.

Today's schedule looks like this:

Portageville vs. East Prairie, 9:30 a.m.; Doniphan vs. Van Buren, 11 a.m.; East Carter vs. Richland, 12:30 p.m.; Kennett vs. Bernie, 2 p.m.; Hayti vs. Greenville, 4 p.m.; Twin Rivers vs. South Pemiscot, 5:30 p.m.; Malden vs. Puxico, 7 p.m.; Dexter vs. Bloomfield, 8:30 p.m.

There will be eight more games Saturday and six Monday. The finals are set for Tuesday, with the championship at 8:30 p.m.

* Host Poplar Bluff and New Madrid County Central are the local teams entered in the Poplar Bluff Showdown that annually features top squads from a variety of states.

First-round games Monday pit Memphis (Tenn.) Hillcrest vs. Graves Co. (Ky.) at 4 p.m.; New Madrid vs. Tulsa (Okla.) Washington at 5:30; Poplar Bluff vs. Keystone Heights (Fla.) at 7; and Pine Bluff (Ark.) vs. Christian Co. (Ky.) at 8:30.

The semifinals will be Tuesday and the championship Wednesday.

* The two Perryville squads are among the eight participating in the Ste. Genevieve Tournament.

Among today's first-round matchups are St. Vincent vs. Hazelwood Central from the St. Louis area at 4 p.m. and Perryville vs. Blue Springs from the Kansas City area at 8:30.

The semifinals will be Saturday, with the finals Sunday.