The fifth annual MidFirst Bank El Reno Invitational will not be short of quality basketball squads when the eight-team tournament gets under way Thursday at Jenks Simmons Field House.

Five of the eight schools are ranked in Class 5A by the latest coachesaid.com poll. Tulsa Bishop Kelley, Tulsa Edison, John Marshall and Carl Albert join El Reno as ranked teams.

“This is a good tournament,” El Reno head coach Eric Carr said. “We've got a lot of diversity.

“There’s a couple of Tulsa schools that we usually don’t see over here on this side of the state very often. The Tulsa schools play each other and beat each other up, so their records are not a good indicator of how good they are.”

Bishop Kelley is the highest ranked team in the tournament at No. 4, but was as high as third before losing a game — dropping its record to 5-3 at the holiday break.

Tulsa Edition was 3-2 at the break and ranked sixth, followed by Carl Albert at No. 9, El Reno 13th and John Marshall 14th.

Carl Albert reached the state semifinals last year and posted a 24-3 record. The Titans are coached by former El Reno skipper Tim Price and beat his former team earlier this season by a 48-22 margin.

Price’s squad, which was 4-0 at the holiday break, held El Reno to eight points in the first half of that earlier meeting and led 41-12 after three periods.

While the three Class 6A schools are unranked, they all have players which can keep games close. One of the most notable players among those large-school teams will most likely be the smallest on the court — Yukon’s Meagan Henson.

Henson stands a mere 4-foot-11, but leads 6A in scoring with a 22.3 points per game average. She scored 22 points in the Millers’ 53-38 win over Putnam City North last week.

“We scrimmged Yukon and got a chance to see her. We had a hard time covering her,” Carr said.

“You play soft on her and she will step back and shoot the three. If you get out and cover her, she will go around you. She is a little sparkplug and will present a challenge for anybody they play.”

El Reno kicks off its run in the tourney against Putnam City, which plays out of the tough Metro Athletic Conference — which includes state champion Mustang and state runner-up Edmond Santa Fe.

The Pirates went 4-18 a year ago but have three starters back for new head coach Dandy Peeler.

Putnam City’s top returning scorer is 5-foot-5 junior Alyssa Hankins, who averaged just under double digits as a sophomore.

“I haven’t got much information on them but they have got some decent athletes. They are not real big but match up wise a little bigger than we are,” Carr said.

“They play hard and get after it but I don’t have any film on them. We are going to have to do a good job of defending them and be solid and do a good job of rebounding the basketball.”