The Bishop O'Connell Knights boys basketball team won the prestigious Alhambra Invitational Championship March 15 at Frostburg State University.

The Knights defeated Cathedral Prep from Ontario, Canada 93-61 in the quarterfinals; Judge Memorial (Utah) 71-54 in the semi-finals and St. Joseph’s Prep (Philadelphia)60-50 in the finals.

"Everybody really played well," said Head Coach Joe Wootten. "We really got after it and we made a lot of great hustle plays during the tournament."

The Knights led at halftime quite comfortably in their first two games, but were tied 26-26 at half versus St. Joseph’s Prep. O'Connell outscored St. Joseph’s Prep 34-24 in the games final 16 minutes to prevail.

Leading the Knights offensively for the tournament was junior Brian Johnson (a combined 49 points), junior Fred Stanback (39), junior Erik Smith (35) and junior Jeremy Trimble (25). Johnson was selected Tournament "MVP." Marcus Ginyard was named second-team All-Tournament, and Jeremy Trimble was named Tournament-Defensive "MVP".

"We went out and really played with a lot of heart," said Trimble. "We took it one game at a time and we played as hard as we could have."

O'Connell finished the season 25-5, including 13-3 in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. "Both marks were the best in school history," said Wootten.

"We finished 4-1 during the season against teams that were ranked in the USA TODAY Top 25. Fortunately, just about all of our guys return for next season." O'Connell finished the season ranked 11th in the Washington area by the Washington Post.