Charlotte Christian made the trip west to Bristol, Tennessee this past weekend for the three-day, single-elimination Holiday Hoops Classic. Charlotte came in as the defending champion.
Up first was Sullivan East who was 1-2 on the season. Charlotte had little trouble, jumping out to a 13 point lead in the first quarter and cruising to the 50-29 win. Sullivan East was forced into making 29 turnovers and only shot 25-percent for the game. Charlotte Christian was led by 5'10 guard Elizabeth Simpson's 16, followed by 15 from Bogdanova. Bogdanova also added nine rebounds and three of the team's 10 blocked shots. She was 5-of-6 from the freethrow line.
Game two was a rematch of last year's championship game against Cawood. Simpson again led her team with 20 points, as Charlotte held off a fourth quarter rally to win 58-55. Bogdanova registered 17 points.
In the finals, Charlotte went up against Tennessee High, who entered the game with a 5-1 record. As they did against Cawood, Charlotte fell behind by a large margin in the first half and had to spend the rest of the game clawing back. THS led 21-6 at the end of the first quarter, and stretched the lead to 18 points at halftime. THS couldn't miss, hitting 12 of their first 15 shots, while at the same time losing the battle of the boards by 20 rebounds. Behind the play of Bogdanova and 6'2 forward Katie Rollins, Charlotte regained the lead in the fourth quarter and held on for the 65-57 win. Bogdanova had game-highs of 25 points and 11 rebounds, hitting 9-of-15 from the field and 7-of-8 from the line.
The tournament's Most Valuable Player award was given to Bogdanova, who averaged 19 points in three games. She also got to the line 17 times during the tournament, hitting 15 of them.
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