Before the final of the varsity boys basketball game on Sunday night, Tony Stellar said it best when he stated that, "All of these teams played against the best, because this is the number one basketball tournament in the country."

The Freedom girls basketball team was able to take part in the annual Stellar Catch A Rising Star Tournament, which began on Wednesday and concluded on Sunday. The weekend consisted of many of the local teams in the Lehigh Valley Conference, Colonial League, and Mountain Valley Conference, but also featured teams from outside the Lehigh Valley.

The Patriots first game was on Friday night, when they were 33-27 winners over Allen. Freedom followed up its opening win with a statement victory against Parkland, who were Lehigh Valley Conference runners-up and PIAA state qualifiers last season. The Patriots outlasted the Trojans in a low scoring 25-24 game in overtime. Brenna Dosedlo scored a game-high 11 points.

"They have a great team," said head coach Ron Garza. "The great thing about them is they consistently have 5-7 or 5-8 girls, and we're a little smaller."

It was a great first three days for Freedom as they went 2-0 and advanced to Sunday. But the last day of the tournament wouldn't be as kind for the Patriots.

First they would lose to powerhouse Southern Lehigh on Sunday morning, and then a couple hours later, Freedom would be eliminated in a three-point loss to Boyertown's B team, 35-32.

"The thing is as good as we played Saturday, is how bad we played [Sunday]," noted Garza. "It was like we were two different teams. We need to be more consistent. [Saturday] we played great defense, and [Sunday] we didn't. But I think we took two steps forward making it to Sunday and playing against great teams, which will help us."

Freedom will now look to improve on their play when the next tournament, SportsFest, approaches this weekend.