Dec. 27, 2007

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Both the men and women will be hosting holiday basketball tournaments on December 29th and 30th. The Women's Holiday Classic tournament will involve Henderson State, Arkansas Monticello, West Alabama and West Florida. The Women's games will be at Noon and 2:00 pm for both Saturday and Sunday, with the Argonauts playing at 2:00 pm each day. The Men's tournament is the Comfort Inn-Pensacola Beach Hoop Classic, and will involve Fayetteville State, Missouri - St. Louis, Ouachita Baptist, and West Florida. The Men's games will be at 4:30 and 6:30 pm for both Saturday and Sunday, with the Argonauts tipping off in the 6:30pm game each day.

The Men's tournament features two Gulf South teams, with West Florida and Ouachita Baptist, playing against Missouri-St.Louis from the Great Lakes Valley Conference, and Fayetteville State (NC) from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. On Saturday, the 4:30 game features the 5-4 Tigers of Ouachita Baptist vs. the 3-4 Broncos of Fayetteville State. The 6:30 game will have the 6-3 Argos hosting the 4-3 Tritons of Missouri- St. Louis. Then on Sunday, Ouachita Baptist will tangle with Missouri St. Louis, while the Argos will host Fayetteville State.

The UWF men have won four consecutive games overall, and three straight road games. The Argos avenged an early season loss to Nova Southeastern, with an impressive 78-66 win in Ft. Lauderdale just before the Christmas holiday. Just two days before, the Argos won in double overtime, 82-80 at St. Leo, despite having four players foul out of the contest. Lucas Malone hit two free throws with a minute left in the second overtime that proved to be the winning points. The Argos boasts some of the Gulf South Conference leaders. Point Guard Deondre Boynton is leading the conference with 5.7 assists per game, while Charles Bouie leads the league with 3.7 blocks per contest, nearly 1 block per game better than the second best in the league. Meanwhile, Kenny Holmes is second in the league with 9.2 rebounds per game, and fourth overall with 2.1 steals per game. The Argos as a team, lead the conference in field goal percentage defense, as they hold opponents to a low 36.6% shooting, while connecting on 41.8% of their own shots.

West Florida has four players in double digit scoring, led by Ryan Henry at 13.4 points per game. He is followed by Josh Jackson, at 10.9, while Holmes at 10.8, and Bouie at 10.7, round out the balanced scoring. Meanwhile, Fayetteville State boasts the top individual scorer in this weekends' tournament, as Andy Gebru is scoring 20.0 points per game. Meanwhile, Missouri St. Louis also has four players averaging 10 points per game or more, led by Larricus Brown at 14.3 per game.

Comfort Inn Pensacola Beach Hoop Classic Tournament Schedule:

December 29 Ouachita Baptist vs. Fayetteville State....4:30 West Florida vs. Missouri St. Louis........6:30

December 30 Ouachita Baptist vs. Missouri St. Louis....4:30 West Florida vs. Fayetteville State........6:30