DFW's oddly monikered TJack Elite dominated Boo Williams' Battle of the Best in Hampton VA this past weekend, rolling to the tournament title without ever being seriously threatened. Even though the score of the championship game was 54-49 (over the host team), DFW trailed only once, at 19-18, and led by 14 with 3:59 left. And though a Tierra Ruffin-Pratt three cut the margin to 53-49, the BWSL Elite was never within one possession of the lead during the final 12 minutes, 9 seconds.

Odyssey Sims bumped and grinded her
way to 25 points in the championship
game.

And even more impressive, the Texans took care of business with tourney MVP Brittany Griner having an off game, with just 11 points. Griner, like most of the players, seemed worn down at the end of the two-day session. (It was originally supposed to be a Friday-throug- Sunday event, but a snafu with NCAA accreditation placed all the games on Saturday and Sunday.)

The format was unusual for these events as well. Rather than pool play, the top 16 teams were placed in a single-elimination bracket, which led, as winning coach Daryl Horton said, "to good games every time out. It wasn?t like there would be an easy pool game."

But the TJack Elite were simply too good, no matter what the format. Their game scores: 81-53 (over the Philadelphia Comets, which then went on to success in the loser's bracket), 65-52 (over Essence, another strong team), 79-58 (over the New York Elite in the semis) and then 54-49 in the championship.

Still not impressed? The "second" DFW team made it to the fifth place game, anchored by posts Cokie Reed and Nikki Green, and featuring the Lincoln High guard tandem of Chynna Brown and Brittany Gowans. They would lose to the Tennessee Flight.  And just for the record, DFW had two more U16 teams in the tournament, plus the most impressive U13 player from Texas, if not the country, in Alexis Jones (who will likely soon be playing with the big girls despite not being in high school yet).

BWSL's Tierra Ruffin-Pratt drives on (l-r)
Jordan Madden, Tierra Rogers and Brittney
Griner of DFW.

Marques Jackson has assembled this powerhouse by encouraging girls to work harder on their games, and to focus as much, if not more, on skill development as spending time traveling to tournaments. "Now the kids are playing year-round," he says, which they didn't do in the past primarily because no one took girls' basketball seriously enough. "It's always been about football in Texas," he said, "but the colleges are helping (by having successful programs). They're having a big impact.

"The biggest selling point is that we're taking them around the country. The Texas colleges don't just recruit in Texas any more, so it's important for our girls to get out and compete against the best in the country."

DFW has an advantage many club teams don't because many Texas high school teams are prevented from traveling to major tournaments during the winter, so the only intersectional outlet is through summer basketball.

And once these players are assembled, they run and shoot and play uptempo basketball. "We're going to play the way we play," says Horton about his team's style, and that's just what they did against Boo Williams. Even when the hosts made runs, DFW continued to push tempo --most notably Odyssey Sims, who led all scorers with 25 hard-earned points.

"I'm tired and sore," said Sims after the game, as she got hit repeatedly on her left-handed forays to the basket. Of course, someone had to score since BWSL was focused on stopping Griner. "We were trying to run plays for her," Sims said, "but they were double-teaming her."

Cokie Reed led DFW's "second team" to
fifth.

Perhaps her most impressive play came with DFW leading 40-32 with 9:55 left. The 5-6 Sims got a rebound, and dribbled the length of the court and scored in what seemed like a heartbeat, and the Virginians never recovered.

Lauren Flores also was all-tournament for DFW, but Tierra Rogers might have been more deserving. Rogers is noted as a demon defender, but she also went hard to the rim, and had some big baskets in the earlier games. (And even though Rogers played for No. 1 ranked Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco last year, it's possible, if not likely, that she will move to Texas for her senior season after the tragic death of her father. That means, of course, she could wind up playing with Griner at Nimitz, with Sims at MacArthur or with any of the other top-flight DFW talent at what would immediately become a powerhouse school.)

Shauntel Nobles and Jordan Madden also were key contributors for DFW, and held off a solid BWSL team that featured 6-3 Asya Bussie, 5-4 Daniell Jackson, 5-8 Ta-Shauna Rodger and, of course, the indefatigable Ruffin-Pratt, who's still unable to raise her left arm above her head after dislocating her shoulder, Candace Parker style, during the Virginia playoffs.

In the end, DFW was just too much -- and Jackson, who runs the club, promises that sooner or later, all the top talent will play on the same team. And since half the available talent won the toughest tournament in April with ease, it's more than a little scary to think what might happen if all the horses were pulling the same wagon.

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Clay Kallam is a columnist and contributor to HoopGurlz.com. He is the founder of Full Court Press, an online magazine devoted to women’s basketball and the author of “Girls Basketball: Building a Winning Program" (Wish Publishing, 2002). Kallam has written about the women’s game for several national publications and is a voter for the McDonald’s All-American team, the Parade All-American team, the All-WNBA team and the Wooden Award, and formerly wrote for the Contra Costa Times newspaper chain. Clay can be contacted via our Contact form (click "Ask Clay Kallam").