The Wesleyan Lady Wolves are the state's top-ranked team and have won championships six of the last seven seasons - a remarkable run that includes a AA title last season. They came out of the gates this season in their title defense quest by posting a 76-4 victory.
And they were 8-0 heading into the holidays, during which they would travel to Phoenix, Ariz., to participate in the invite-only Nike Tournament of Champions. As the tournament's title suggests, this isn't just any tournament. Elite girls programs from all over the country are invited to participate, and the Lady Wolves accepted this year's invitation and competed in the Joe Smith Bracket - the highest of six divisions in the tournament.
The Lady Wolves finished the tourney with a 2-2 record, which was good for 11th place out of the 24 teams that participated. Though 11th place may not sound like a success when compared to dominant state championship success, Wesleyan girls coach Jan Azar is more than pleased with her team's performance.
"When you come out here you've done a good job to get one win," Azar said. "It's a great game every single night. The teams out here - especially in our bracket - the majority of them are nationally ranked. There's no such thing as a night off here for any team."
Heading into the tournament, Wesleyan's smallest margin of victory was nine points. As Azar expected, the Lady Wolves were challenged all four games they played in. They lost to Long Beach Poly 54-51 in overtime, beat Homewood 52-45, lost 54-52 to Dillard and beat New Tier 48-42.
"The main reason we play here is to help up prepare for region," Azar said.
For this group of Lady Wolves, it was the first time participating in the Tournament of Champions. Wesleyan receives an invite annually, and this is the third time the program has participated. Azar said she likes to mix up the holiday tournaments each year and makes sure every class plays in the Tournament of Champions at least once in their prep career.
For Azar, many factors come in to play when choosing which holiday tournaments to participate in, including finances, the makeup of that season's team, potential college visits for players and so on.
"I try to mix it up and go to a lot of different places," Azar said.
Aside from playing different competition, there are other X-factors that make holiday tournaments different, including scouting your opponent.
"We were able to study film on our first opponent, Long Beach Poly," Azar said. "The rest of the teams, we'd watch at the tournament and have less than a day to scout, instead of weeks to scout."
The high level of competition and variables that take her players out of their routine is what Azar enjoys most about holiday tournaments and this time of the season.
Azar said the team has already learned from the losing experiences from the Tournament of Champions.
"The first game went to overtime when we gave up a last-second 3," Azar said. "We lost that game because we didn't finish at the free throw line. We came back the next game and won with our free throw shooting."
With the holidays out of the way, the Lady Wolves now head into the thick of their region schedule, which will decide playoff seeding. Wesleyan resides in Region 6, which features three teams in the top five including No. 2 Holy Innocents' and No. 5 Lovett.
Holy Innocents' won the region title last season and was 3-0 against Wesleyan until the state title game, which the Lady Wolves won 45-31.
The Lady Wolves travel to play region foe GAC on Jan. 5 in their first game since the holiday tournament.
Credit: Craig Sager
Credit: Craig Sager
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