Decatur Girls Drop Coleman Tourney Opener

Decatur Girls Drop Coleman Tourney Opener
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BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s girls’ varsity basketball team dropped a tough one last week in the opening round of the annual John Coleman Christmas Tournament, falling to host Pocomoke, 53-21, last Tuesday.

The annual holiday tournament, named for long-time Worcester County Public Schools Administrator John Coleman, has become one of the highlights of the high school basketball tournament schedule on the Eastern Shore over the years. This year’s tournament marked a return to tradition with the three county public schools, Decatur, Snow Hill and Pocomoke, competing along with Nandua from Virginia.

In the beginning, the Coleman Tournament featured both the boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball teams from the county’s three public high school along with an at-large invitee. Several years ago, the format changed to feature the girls’ and boys’ teams in alternating years and the site would rotate between Decatur, Snow Hill and Pocomoke.

This year, it was the Pocomoke girls’ chance to host the tournament and the Warriors were not kind to the Seahawks in their opening round match-up last Tuesday. Pocomoke stomped Decatur, 53-21, to advance to the title game. However, the Seahawks showed marked improvement over the first game against Pocomoke a week earlier when they were crushed, 57-12.

With most of the area boys’ teams competing in the NHSCA High School Tournament in Salisbury this week, the Coleman tournament was strictly a girls’ event again this year. The action resumed this Tuesday with the final round games between Decatur, Snow Hill, Pocomoke and Nandua playing a round-robin format with a champion emerging on the tournament’s last day. The Seahawks played another county rival, Snow Hill, on Tuesday in a game played too late to be included in this edition.