High school basketball comes to the forefront this week with several Teche Area teams taking the court at various tournaments between now and New Years Eve.

Two tournament with the most local participation are St. Martinville Senior High’s annual Holiday Shootout and North Vermilion’s Holiday Classic.

At St. Martinville, New Iberia Senior High, Westgate, Franklin and host SMSH will battle 10 other teams from across the southern and middle parts of the state for the championship of the annual tournament.

The 14 teams in the tournament also include Cecilia, Alexandria Senior High, Church Point, Breaux Bridge, Patterson, Jennings, Peabody, Rayne, Livingston Collegiate and Tioga.

The tournament starts at Noon today with Rayne playing Church Point.

NISH will battle Jennings at 1:30 p.m. and host St. Martinville will face Franklin at 6 p.m. Westgate received a first round bye and will play its first game Friday at Noon against the winner of Cecilia and Livingston Collegiate.

Other games set for today include Alexandria and Patterson at 3 p.m.; Cecilia and Livingston Collegiate at 4:30 p.m. and Breaux Bridge and Tioga at 7:30 p.m.

The finals of the Holiday Shootout are set for Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

Over at North Vermilion, Catholic High, Delcambre, Centerville and West St. Mary will all participate in the Holiday Classic starting Friday at Noon with Centerville playing Acadiana in the A gym. At 12:30 p.m. Delcambre will play Berwick in the B gym. Catholic High will play Iowa in the B gym at 3:30 p.m. while WSM will play host North Vermilion in the A gym at 6 p.m.

Saturday, Delcambre will play Centerville will play Midland in the B gym at 12:30 p.m. West St. Mary plays Barbe in the B gym at 2 p.m. and Catholic High will play Acadiana at 6:30 p.m. in the B gym.

Sunday, Delcambre will play Iota at 1:30 p.m. while Centerville will play North Vermilion at 6 p.m. in the A gym.

Over in Abbeville, the Vermilion Catholic Yuletide Tournament gets underway today with several boys’ and girls’ games.

While the Erath boys’ team is the only area team slated to be in the tournament, the Highland Baptist girls and the Delcambre girls will be participating.

Delcambre is slated to play Lafayette High at 11:30 a.m. today while Highland Baptist will play Gueydan at 2:30 p.m. today.

Erath will play Ascension Catholic at 4 p.m. today; Cristo Rey at 7 p.m. Friday and host Vermilion Catholic Monday at 7 p.m. in the round robin format.

Friday, both teams are expected to play in either the consolation bracket or the winners bracket as determined by the results of the first round games.

The tournament continues Saturday, will take Sunday off and finish up Monday with the championship rounds.

Over at Northwest High School in Prairie Ronde, just outside of Opelousas, Westgate and St. Martinville girls’ teams are in the Northwest Holiday Tournament.

The tournament gets underway today with St. Martinville facing East Iberville at 9:30 a.m. and Westgate facing host Northwest High at 2 p.m.

The tournament continues with elimination games Friday and the championship rounds in both the consolation and winners brackets set for Saturday.

Finally, Jeanerette will play in St. Thomas More’s Sunkist Shootout starting today as the Tigers will face host St. Thomas More at 6:30 p.m. in the opening round.

The tournament continues with elimination games Friday and Saturday. After a rest day Sunday, the championship rounds in the consolation and winners bracket will play Monday.

Single games set for this week include New Iberia Senior High girls playing host to North Central and Hanson girls playing host to Comeaux Friday while ESA is slated to play Covenant Christian in a boys game Friday at 2 p.m.