With the holidays here, another edition of the most prestigious regular season tournament in Indiana high school basketball – the City Securities Hall of Fame Classic – is upon us.

The girls’ 2011 City Securities Hall of Fame Classic tournaments will be held Thursday, December 29 at the New Castle Fieldhouse featuring the top teams, talent, and coaching in the state.

2011 Girls’ City Securities Hall of Fame Classic
New Castle Fieldhouse – Thursday, December 29, 2011
11:00 AM 4A #12 Roncalli vs. 3A #1 Norwell
to follow 4A #2 Penn vs. 3A #3 Mt. Vernon (Fortville)
6:00 PM Consolation Game
8:00 PM Championship Game

Another outstanding group of teams comes to the New Castle Fieldhouse on Thursday, December 29 for the 2011 City Securities Girls’ Hall of Fame Classic. Two of the four teams are undefeated and the four teams have a combined record of 40-5.

The first game begins at 11:00 a.m. (ET) with Roncalli (8-3) taking on Norwell (8-0). The second game will feature Penn (11-0) versus Mt. Vernon (8-2). Winners play for the championship at 8:00 that evening with the consolation game preceding at 6:00.

Roncalli returns five starters and an overwhelming majority of their 2010-11 team that reached the 3A semi-state and led eventual 3A champion Evansville Memorial in the fourth quarter. The Rebels have won 51 games and all three sectional championships in coach Sara Riedeman’s first three full seasons. Seniors CoCo Clark and Katie Brewer (Butler) are four-year players for the Rebels, while junior Bridget Perry was all-state as a sophomore and recently committed to play at Purdue. Unfortunately, Brewer will not be playing in this year’s Hall of Fame Classic due to injury.

Norwell has maintained one of the state’s top programs over the past few years. Currently ranked #1 in class 3A, coach Eric Thornton’s teams have won 88.7% of their games (86-11) over the past five seasons, a mark that is 3rd best in the state. Senior post Jessica Rupright (Miami OH, right) is averaging 18.4 points and 7.9 rebounds, while Taylor Wilson scores 10.1 points per contest.

2011 4A runner-up Penn continues an outstanding run and sits as the state’s #1 ranked team. The 11-0 Lady Kings(wo)men have won 90.7% of their games the last three seasons, have lost only one regular season game to an Indiana team in that same span, and have recorded a remarkable 18 consecutive winning seasons. Senior Alex Morton (Western Michigan, left) averages 17.1 points and 3.4 steals for Kristi Kaniewski’s team, which has four other players averaging between 7.7 and 10.6 points per game.

Mt. Vernon advanced to last year’s 3A semi-state and returns a majority of that team’s personnel. Head coach Julie Shelton surpassed 200 career wins earlier this season and has a strong tie to the Classic tradition. Shelton was the MVP of the 1987 Classic while a player at Seymour and was head coach of Mt. Vernon’s team that won the 1999 event. She became the first woman to play in the Classic and win the Classic as a head coach.

Mt. Vernon senior point guard Jessica Brown (Indiana Wesleyan) leads the team at 14.8 points, 5.8 assists per game and recently scored her 1,000th career point. Classmate Makenzi Reasor (Indiana State) averages 13.6 points and 5.0 rebounds, while sophomore post Erica Moore scores 11.1 points and grabs 6.3 rebounds per game.

The 2011 edition is the 28th girls’ City Securities Hall of Fame Classic and 22nd played in New Castle. The girls’ tournament has included 15 teams that went on to win a state championship that season, including eight state champions and four state runner-up teams in the past nine years alone.

Each of the 2010 Girls Classic participants claimed successful seasons. Brownsburg won the event behind Tournament MVP sophomore star Stephanie Mavunga, while Jeffersonville (4A) and Evansville Memorial (3A) went on to claim state championships. The other participant, Carmel, was the team that ended Ben Davis’ 81-game winning streak – the longest in state history, either boys or girls.