Lady Cavaliers Shine in Nationally Televised Tournament

Last weekend, the ladies of Archbishop Spalding’s girls basketball team competed on the national stage, facing the best teams America had to offer in the RISE National High School Invitational (NHIS) basketball tournament in Bethesda, MD.

As the tournament’s No. 1 seed, the squad went up against powerhouses like Hollywood Christian from Florida and Riverdale Baptist form Upper Marlboro, MD.

Despite losing to Dr. Phillips, an elite team from Florida in a tough game, the Cavaliers look to take the momentum of this winter's success and turn it into another dominant season next year.

Bookie Rosemund, the head coach, said the loss against Dr. Phillips was an unfortunate one, citing his team’s poor shooting percentage as the key to their downfall in a game he said they would win, “eight out of 10 times.”

“They got hot and we didn’t," he said. "With our senior leadership and experience, I thought very strongly that we would beat them. They got the best of us.”

Even though the Cavaliers didn’t go as deep in the NHIS as they had hoped, the school’s exposure is invaluable, Rosemund said.

“It gives us exposure that I think we earned and it was a chance to follow up on a great season on the national level. It allowed us to become familiar with other great programs that are known nationally,” he said.

“[The NHIS] will helps us recruit marquee players form the area now," Rosemund said. "We can say that we play on the national stage and we look for the best student athletes we can find."

Upon returning to home after the tournament, Rosemund said he already had two international recruits interested in his program.

“There were two eighth graders from Nigeria who are 6 foot 3, moving to Maryland and have an interest in playing for Spalding,” he said.

After leading his girls to an IAAM Conference Championship for the first time in nine years and the NHIS, Rosemund said playing on the national stage only heightened his team’s hunger for more titles even though he will lose star players like Maggie Morrison (committed to Vanderbilt) and two other seniors who each recorder more than 1,000 points in their careers.

“We’re in a very good position with Alea Epps (sophomore) and Torri Chestnut (sophomore) returning next year,” he said. “We’re very excited and they are too.”