Houston Bellaire, TexasHoops.com's fourth ranked Class 5A boys team, is the top seed at the 32-team Houston ISD/Houston Jaycees/Reebok Basketball Tournament Thursday through Saturday at four Houston area locations.

The 66th-annual event will run through the finals at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Delmar Fieldhouse. The tournament is made up entirely by Houston ISD and Houston-area schools.

"I think this is the strongest field we've had in a long time," said Dave Hudek, HISD athletic coordinator and the tournament director for the past four years. He also coached in the tournament from the mid-'80s to 2001. "I think that any one of 10 teams could win this thing. And in a five-game tournament, you never know."

Bellaire, ranked fifth by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, is led 6-6 forward Dale Van Wright. Wright, No. 14 in TexasHoops.com's 2006 Top 100 Boys rankings, has signed to play at Colorado. Bellaire also has a pair of high-ranked juniors in 5-9 guard Jai Lucas (No. 7 in TexasHoops.com's junior rankings) and 6-8 center/forward Isaiah Rusher (No. 9).

Other highly-ranked seniors competing at the tournament include eight-ranked Harrison Smith, a 6-3 guard from Jones who has signed with Texas, along with Wheatley's 6-0 guard DeWayne Reed (No. 16) and Galena Park North Shore's 6-7 forward Kenneth Clayton (No. 23). Smith, Reed and Lucas all made the all-tournament team a year ago.

The top seed in the other half of the bracket is Wheatley, TexasHoops.com's third ranked Class 4A team (ranked No. 2 by TABC). Wheatley is expected to meet Cypress Community Christian, the top-ranked boys private school, in one of Saturday's semifinals. Milby is seeded fourth and is expected to meet Bellaire in the other semfinal.

"The athletic department does not seed the tournament. The coaches do," said Hudek, who brings in about 10 coaches to rank the teams. "It makes for a better tournament because the coaches have some input and have a stake in it so they do a good job."

Last year, Westbury Christian won the big Jaycees event behind three college-bound stars, Shawn Coleman (Tulsa), Jeremy Barr (Southern Cal) and Peter Stein (William & Mary). Westbury beat Eisenhower in the title game while Wheatley placed third and Spring took the consolation title.

Hudek says that the Jaycees and HISD has considered inviting teams from out of the area and even out of the state but that the tournament has no problem standing on its own with only Houston-area teams.

"We're looking towards that down the road," Hudek said. "But in order to bring teams in, you've got to spend a lot of money. The Jaycee tournament used to be one of the only tournaments around. Now, with a lot of competition, all we can do is make the bracket fair, offer our coaches nice venues to play in and hopefully, by word of mouth, we'll get some teams to come in. Eventually, we'd like to branch out, to bring in some teams from Dallas, but there's enough talent in the greater Houston area where we could still survive the way it is.

"I think that whoever picked this tournament weekend out 66 years ago made a great decision. It's the weekend before you go on your break. It's a fun tournament, near Christmas time. The kids are out of school. All you have to do it worry about basketball. It's 55 games in three days."

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Westside High School recently came away with the championship of the 22nd annual Houston ISD Girls Invitational. Westside, ranked No. 4 in Class 5A by TexasHoops.com, defeated the four-ranked large private school, Westbury Christian, in the championship game. Bellaire placed third and Kinkaid won the consolation trophy.

Sydney Colson of West side was selected girls tournament MVP, with teammates Ashley Alexander and Ausha Hartley making the all-tournament team along with Christina Ray, Ijeoma Waturuocha and Kourtney Epps of Westbury, Jamie Whitfield and Demetria Buchanan of Jones, Nia Torru and Jasmine Hartman of Bellaire and Lady Couisnard of Kinkaid.

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The first-round pairings in the Houston Jaycees' boys bracket:

Thursday, Dec. 15

At Delmar Fieldhouse – Westside vs. C.E. King, 3 p.m.; Austin vs. North Shore, 4:30 p.m.; Kashmere vs. Madison, 6 p.m.; Milby vs. Lee, 7:30 p.m.

At Butler Fieldhouse – Westbury vs. Sharpstown, 3 p.m.; Forest Brook vs. St. Pius, 4:30 p.m.; Westbury Christian vs. Worthing, 6 p.m.; Bellaire vs. Sam Houston, 7:30 p.m.

At Barnett Fieldhouse – Washington vs. Chavez, 3 p.m.; Jones vs. Waltrip, 4:30 p.m.; Spring vs. Furr, 6 p.m.; Wheatley vs. Davis, 7:30 p.m.

At Lamar Gymnasium – Yates vs. Eisenhower, 3 p.m.; Cypress Community Christian vs. Reagan, 4:30 p.m.; St. Thomas vs. Sterling, 6 p.m.; Lamar vs. Scarborough, 7:30 p.m.