Tournament will feature 16 teams

While most Columbia County students will take it easy during Christmas break, most of the county's basketball teams will go to work.

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The annual Firehouse Subs Shootout Christmas Tournament will take place Thursday through Saturday, pitting the county's top talent against four other schools from surrounding counties. Evans High School will again play host to the tournament that has grown throughout the years.

"We're up to 16 teams now with the boys and girls," Evans athletic director and boys basketball coach Kevin Kenny said.

"Every day the first games will start at 10 a.m., and the last one will start at 8:30 p.m. It's going to be three long days of basketball."

All four Columbia County public schools will send their boys and girls varsity teams to the tournament. Teams from Washington-Wilkes, Jefferson County, Lincoln County and Aquinas will attend.

Kenny said each squad is guaranteed to play three games. The tournament will end Saturday night when a boys tournament champion and a girls tournament champion will be crowned.

The girls championship game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. The boys title game will follow at 8:30.

Evans' boys basketball team won the Columbia County Tip Off Tournament Championship earlier this year after two days of competition among the four Columbia County public schools. Greenbrier took home the girls championship trophy.

The Firehouse Subs Shootout Christmas Tournament will be bigger, with an extra day of games and twice as many teams competing.

Evans' boys and Greenbrier's girls also won last year's Firehouse Subs Shootout Christmas Tournament when 12 boys and girls teams compete in a set round-robin format.