The 2011 Holiday Festival basketball invitational features 20 boys high school basketball teams and 12 girls basketball teams and will be played over five days at two sites.
The boys, who will play at Raleigh's Broughton High on Dec. 27-30, are divided into three four-team fields and one eight-team bracket. The girls have a four-team bracket and an eight-team bracket and will play at Cary Academy and at Broughton on Dec. 26 through 28.
GlaxoSmithKline had been paying for naming rights to the holiday invitational. The contract expired last year and Glaxo did not renew. The tournament is seeking a new title sponsor.
Among the top players in the field are uncommitted Rodney Purvis of Raleigh Upper Room Christian; Duke recruit Rasheed Sulaimon of Strake Jesuit, Texas; Wake Forest recruit Aaron Rountree of Wilson Greenfield and Florida recruit Braxton Ogbueze of Charlotte United Faith.
Teams have been placed in fields, but not put on brackets yet.
One of the brackets, the 1972 group, features four school that played 40 yeas ago in the first Holiday Invitational.
Boys
1972: Rocky Mount, Kinston, Garner, Broughton
Private: Wilson Greenfield, Raleigh Upper Room Christian, Raleigh Body of Christ, Miller School, Va.
Triangle: Middle Creek, Millbrook, Clayton, Chapel Hill
Eight-team: Raleigh Word of God, Ravenscroft, Charlotte United Faith, High Point Wesleyan, Strake Jesuit, Texas; Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler; Bronx St. Raymond, NY; St. Marks, Mass.
Girls
Eight: Green Hope, Millbrook, Durham Hillside, Charlotte Myers Park, Durham Riverside, Bunn, Panther Creek, Cary Christian
Four: Rocky Mount, Cary Academy, Holly Springs, Cary
