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She's been tagged the nation's top girls basketball player, but Maya Moore of Collins Hill High (Suwanee, Ga.) isn't concerned with personal accolades.
Foremost is next week's Tournament of Champions in Chandler, Ariz. The 6-1 Moore and her teammates will play in the 16-team Black Division bracket, which tips off the annual four-day tournament Monday at Basha and Hamilton high schools. The final is at 4:30 ET Thursday at Hamilton.
Thirteen teams in the Black Division are in USA TODAY's Super25 girls rankings, with an additional two from the regional rankings.
"That's amazing," Moore said of the stocked field. "It's a good test for a team to see the best talent in the nation."
For top-ranked Collins Hill (7-0) to reach the title game for the second year in a row, it must beat St. John's (Washington, D.C.) in one of Monday's eight first-round games and then possibly three ranked opponents from the pool of No.6 Archbishop Mitty (San Jose), No.7 Providence Day (Charlotte), No.9 Lynwood (Calif.), No.14 Notre Dame Academy (Middleburg, Va.) and No.18 Chief Sealth (Seattle).
"This is the best tournament in the country, considering all the talented players and quality teams," said Collins Hill coach Tracey Tipton, whose team lost 79-75 to Christ the King (Queens, N.Y.) in last year's TOC final.
The lower bracket is no cakewalk, with six more ranked teams and the nation's top junior, 6-5 Elena DelleDonne of No.10 Ursuline Academy (Wilmington, Del.). No.2 Poly (Long Beach), California's large-school (Division I) reigning champion, features Washington-bound 5-11 Candice Nichols.
In the previous two years, No.12 Christ the King (4-1) has used the victories in the TOC as a springboard to finish No.1 in the Super25 rankings. Coach Bob Mackey's squad's 57-game winning streak was snapped this season in a 58-54 overtime loss to Holy Cross (Kensington, Md.). The setback to the No.9 team in the East region was "a real wake-up call," he said.
Christ's guard-oriented lineup features the duo of Lorin Dixon and Sky Lindsay, who signed with Connecticut and St. John's.
The lower bracket's most intriguing first-round matchup features No.21 Towson (Md.) Catholic and No.24 The First Academy (Orlando). TFA's 6-4 Krystal Thomas, who signed with Duke, averages 21.7 points and 11.5 rebounds through seven games.
Though the Black Division dominates the Tournament of Champions, four other 16-team brackets will be contested in the East Valley, near Phoenix. The Blue Division, considered the second deepest of the five, has ThunderRidge (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Redondo Union (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Highlands Ranch, Narbonne (Harbor City, Calif.) and Oregon City (Ore.).
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