Charleston No. 1 for Christmas tourney

Charleston, the defending champion, received the top seed Sunday for the seMissourian Christmas Basketball Tournament that will be held Dec. 26-30 at the Show Me Center.

The 58th annual event holiday event, formerly known as the University High Christmas Tournament, will again feature 16 area boys' teams.

Charleston was a unanimous No. 1 seed as the Blue Jays received all 16 first-place votes from the head coaches involved in the tournament.

Rounding out the top four seeds are Notre Dame, Jackson and Cape Girardeau Central, which tied with Oran for the No. 4 spot but won a coin flip.

Oran is fifth, followed by Bell City, Scott City, Advance, Kelly, Meadow Heights, Woodland, Scott County Central, Leopold, Delta, Oak Ridge and Chaffee.

First-round games Dec. 26 feature Charleston vs. Chaffee, Notre Dame vs. Oak Ridge, Jackson vs. Delta, Central vs. Leopold, Oran vs. SCC, Bell City vs. Woodland, Scott City vs. Meadow Heights and Advance vs. Kelly.

The quarterfinals are Dec. 27, the semifinals Dec. 28 and the finals Dec. 30.

Charleston, which beat Jackson in last year's final, has won a tournament-record 14 titles.