The MTXE Tournament, hosted by the SBCC women’s basketball team, always attracts a strong field and the seventh annual edition is no exception. Five of the eight teams competed in last year’s state playoffs.
The three-day tourney begins on Thursday with four games. Riverside and Solano tip off at 1 p.m.; Grossmont and Cerritos will play at 3; San Bernardino Valley and San Diego Mesa tangle at 5 p.m. and SBCC hosts Santa Ana at 7 p.m.
San Bernardino Valley, the defending tournament champion, qualified for state last year along with SBCC, Riverside, Cerritos and Solano. San Bernardino (2-1) is ranked No. 5 in Southern Cal. Cerritos is No. 10, followed by Riverside (13) and SBCC (14).
The Vaqueros split their first two games on the road, losing to Reedley by one and beating Sequoias by two.
“This is a strong tournament,” said eighth-year Santa Barbara coach Sandrine Krul. “Santa Ana is a good team. There are no easy first-round games in our tourney.”
Jennifer Jimenez is averaging 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. Brooke Berry, a star guard on last year’s team, is out with several injuries.
“Our goal is to win the tourney and you have to perform to win it,” said Krul. “We showed a lot of resiliency in our first two games. The Sequoias game was exactly like the Reedley game in the last few minutes. We learned from the first game and knew what to do.“
