An historic basketball rivalry between the District of Columbia’s public high schools and the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference will continue tonight at the Verizon Center.
The girls’ game, which features H.D. Woodson against Holy Cross, tips off at 5:30. In the boys’ championship at 7:30, Cardozo battles DeMatha.
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Council Member Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, helped to organize this year’s game. He said he expects as many as 10,000 people at the Verizon Center tonight.
“I’m very excited about it,” Evans said. “The city championship is like our state championship game.”
This year marks Woodson’s second consecutive appearance in the title game and Cardozo’s fourth. Cardozo played the first title game pitting the District’s public high schools against the region’s Catholic schools, against Gonzaga in 1957 at the Uline Arena, home of D.C.’s then-professional basketball team, the Washington Capitals.
The high school girl’s game joined theroster for the first time in 1994. Tonight’s game will honor Lucille Hester, a counselor and athletic director at Hardy Middle School, where she developed that school’s first athletic program.
Evans said organizers are seeking an official name for the event. Under consideration is the “Pollin-Bing Washington Championship Game,” after Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin and former seven-time NBA All-Star guard Dave Bing, a Washington native who played for the Washington Bullets and Detroit Pistons.
