The Houston Elite White 17-under girls
basketball team took top honors at the 128-team Adidas
Showtime National Championship Tournament played July 8-11
in Atlanta, Ga.
"We were definitely not the favorite going
into the tournament," Houston Elite White coach Howard
Randle said. "We played in another national tournament in
North Carolina in April and we didn't do very well at all.
After that disappointing finish, there probably weren't a
lot of people putting us as the team to beat in Atlanta
earlier this month."
Everything came together for the Houston
Elite White which recorded a 67-59 Adidas Showtime
tournament semifinals triumph against the Cy-Fair Texans,
and then outlasted Dallas-Forth Worth Elite 62-59 in the
championship finals.
"That says a lot about how Texas and
Houston area girls basketball when you have three Texas
teams in the final four, and two in the final four from
Houston," Randle said. "We're so proud of the players. The
nucleus of the team has played together for about three
years. Our season runs from March through July, it picks up
right after the high school season ends, and finishes up
before school starts in August."
The Houston Elite White roster includes
Carla Cortijo (Bellaire), Morenike Atunrase (Shreveport,
La.), Ashley Bell (Westbrook), Ashleigh Curry (Houston
Washington), Geralyn Stephens (Houston Madison), Nakazi
Glover (Brookshire Royal), A'Quonesia Franklin (Tyler John
Tyler), Crystal Boyd (Little Rock, Ark.) and Latoya Micheaux
(Hightower).
Cortijo was named the championship game
most valuable player, and she joined Atunrase on the
all-tournament team.
Atunrase and Franklin are headed to Texas
A&M, and Curry has signed with the University of Houston,
according to Randle. The other six Houston Elite White
players will be high school seniors in 2004-05.
"The tournament victory was sweet, very
sweet. It's our first national championship," Randle said.
"We had lost to Cy-Fair four times this year before beating
them in the semifinals, and we had lost to some of the other
teams we faced, so this tournament championship was very
meaningful to us in many ways."
Coach Kareema Williams' Houston Elite Blue
17-under team finished 11th at the Adidas Showtime
Tournament. The team included Alaina Lee (Madison), Alicia
McDaniel (Madison), Jasmin Moore (Langham Creek), Vanessa
Hadley (Dobie), Brittany Hudson (Fort Bend Austin), Tais
Lanza (Bellaire), Bianca Smith (Bellaire), Brittany Johnson
(Bellaire), Elizabeth Simien (Ozen) and Keindra Scott
(Yates).
Lee is headed to Murray State in Kentucky,
McDaniel will play for Lafeyette in Louisiana, and Moore is
bound for the University of Houston. All the other Elite
Blue players are high school seniors to be, except for
Hudson, who will be a sophomore at Austin.
The Houston Elite Blue came within one
victory of facing the Houston Elite White in Atlanta.
"That would have been a real battle,"
Randle said.
