The basketball brackets are set for this year’s annual eight-team George Long Holiday Tournament at Wakefield High School.
This will be the 22nd year for the boys competition, hosted by the Wakefield Warriors with four games each day Dec. 26-28.
The holiday tourney is one of the longest running in the metropolitan area. Participants this year come from Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties in Northern Virginia as well as the Tidewater area.
Wakefield (3-1) and the Washington-Liberty Generals (2-5) are from Arlington. The Chantilly Chargers (4-1) and South County Stallions (1-1) are representing from Fairfax County. The Osbourn Eagles (1-5), Potomac Senior Panthers (3-2) and Freedom-Woodbridge Eagles (0-4) are from Prince William County.
The defending champion Oscar Smith Tigers are from Chesapeake, owning a 4-0 record through Dec. 14 games. Oscar Smith defeated Wakefield in last year’s tournament-championship game.
Each team will play one game per day over the course of three days. Game times are 1 p.m., 2:45 p.m. 4:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.
In Dec. 26 first-round contests, Washington-Liberty plays Potomac at 1 p.m., 2022 champion South County faces Osbourn at 2:45 p.m., Chantilly and Oscar Smith meet at 4:30 p.m. and Wakefield and Freedom-Woodbridge are scheduled for 6:15 p.m. The championship game is Dec. 28 at 6:15 p.m., with the consolation game at 4:30 p.m.
All eight teams this season have played in the tournament before. Wakefield has won it four times, the last year in 2015.
Tournament director Tony Bentley, also Wakefield’s head coach, explained that setting up the first-round games is a challenge to avoid certain matchups.
For example, South County and Washington-Liberty met in the regular season already, so that couldn’t be a first-round game. Neither can Wakefield and W-L meet in the first round because the teams played two Liberty District regular-season games.
Washington-Liberty has played in the tournament most every year. Its best finish was second in 2022. The Generals finished third last year, with the team’s only loss to Oscar Smith.
South County is the only other former champion in the field, winning the title twice. The Stallions were fifth last year with a 2-1 record, losing in the first round to Oscar Smith.
