2019 Les Schwab Invitational Preview
Now in its 24th 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 30, 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.
Practically every top 6A and 5A state title contender and just about every NCAA Division I prospect will be participating in the event. In 6A, Jefferson remains the overall favorite. The Demos are coming off a 2-2 performance at the prestigious Iolani Classic and will be hungry for wins at the LSI. Washington State commit Nate Rawlins-Kibonge, Kam Robinson, and Marquis “Mookie” Cook – fresh with an offer from Washington – lead the way for head coach Pat Strickland’s team.
Other 6A teams in the field that should contend for state include defending champion Jesuit, Central Catholic, Grant, Clackamas, Lake Oswego, and West Linn. Individual talents such as Ben Gregg (Clackamas), Isaiah Amato and Darius Gakwasi (Central Catholic), Erik Fraser (Grant), Trace Salton (Lake Oswego), Micah Garrett and freshman Jackson Shelstad (West Linn) will also take the floor this weekend. All of these players are getting significant college basketball recruiting interest.
The top 5A teams will be at Liberty High School too. Defending champion Wilsonville is fresh off an impressive runner-up finish at the Capitol City Classic and their senior trio of Dakota Reber, Gabe Reichle, and Keegan Shivers will look to continue making waves at the LSI. Last year’s 5A runnerup Churchill is back again and their own senior trio of Brian Goracke (Point Loma), Kaelan O’Neil (Eastern Washington), and Silas Bennion (Lewis-Clark State) have already signed with their respective college programs. And Crater – led one of the nation’s top players in Nathan Bittle – hopes to pull out some wins as well.
As always, the out-of-state invitees are quite formidable. Mater Dei out of the Los Angeles Area is currently ranked #12 in the USA Today Top 25 and the Monarchs roster is filled with future Division I players, led by Kentucky commit Devin Askew. Bishop Gorman out of Las Vegas is also in the Top 25 (ranked #13) and the Gaels also have plenty of future D-I prospects such as Stanford signee Noah Taitz. Norcross comes to the Pacific Northwest from Georgia and they have an athletic group of guys including nationally ranked JT Thor and college signees Josh Taylor (Georgia) and Quincy Ademokoya (Temple).
Two Washington teams are in the field with Eastside Catholic and Battle Ground. Eastside Catholic is headed by electric juniors Nolan Hickman, Shane Nowell and JT Tuimoloau – one of the top football players in the entire country – who will man the middle. Speaking of post guys, Battle Ground – listed as one of the “Oregon” teams due to their proximity to the Portland Metro area – is paced by Kaden Perry. The Gonzaga verbal commit will continue making his case as one of the top players not only in the state of Washington but nationally.
All games will take place on the campus of Liberty High School in Liberty and the action starts at 9:00 am on Thursday, December 26. The full bracket can be found here, while tickets can be purchased here.
PrepHoops Oregon will be on site for the Les Schwab Invitational so be sure to follow us on Twitter at @PrepHoopsOR and writeups will be posted daily on PrepHoops Oregon.