FROSTBURG — In an historic year, amidst a field filled with players on their way to NCAA Tournament contenders, the Gonzaga Eagles, of Washington, D.C., open their quest to become just the fifth team in history to win at least three tournament titles in a row as the 50th Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament begins tonight at Frostburg State University.

Gonzaga (25-7), ranked No 3 in the Washington, D.C. area, takes on the host school of the tournament, Cumberland’s Bishop Walsh (8-15), in today’s 4 p.m. game to open the tournament.

In Game 2, at 5:45 p.m., Benedictine (23-7), Richmond, Va., plays St. Frances Academy (22-9), ranked No. 5 in Baltimore. Mount St. Joseph (30-4), ranked No. 3 in Baltimore, will play Judge Memorial (19-6), Salt Lake City, Utah in Game 3, beginning at 7:30 p.m. while the opening night concludes with a scheduled 9:15 p.m. tip-off between 19-time ACIT champion DeMatha (30-3), the top-ranked team in Washington as well as the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and D.C. City champions, and Cathedral High School, (20-15) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Thornton to Duke, Lindsay to Richmond

Gonzaga, coming off a 71-52 loss to DeMatha in the WCAC championship game March 8, won last year’s ACIT with a 66-56 win over St. Frances in the championship game as Ian Hummer, now playing at Princeton, scored 15 points and had 15 rebounds to become just the third player in history to win back-to-back tournament MVPs, joining St. George’s Ed Lawry (1961-62) and Mackin’s Anthony “Jo Jo” Hunter (1975-76).

Should the Eagles win three in a row this weekend they would join the 1971-73, 1977-81 and 1998-2001 DeMatha teams, and the Bishop O’Connell teams of 2003-05 as the only teams to win three ACITs in a row.

Gonzaga is led by 6-foot-1 guard Cederick Lindsay, who averages 18 points a game and is headed to Richmond. Tyler Thornton, a 6-2 guard who averages 14 points per game, is headed to Duke, and 6-4 forward Malcolm Lemmons is scoring 11 points per game. It was Lindsay's steal and score in overtime that gave Gonzaga a 67-65 win over DeMatha in the teams’ second meeting. Gonzaga has lost two of its three meetings with DeMatha.

Pat Jones averages 11.5 points and shoots 77 percent from the free-throw line for Bishop Walsh. Quincy Redmon averages 9.1 points a game.

 Gbinije to Duke; Sparrow to Richmond

The Benedictine Cadets return to the ACIT with another player who has committed to one of the Tobacco Road powers, as 6-6 junior Michael Gbinije has committed to Duke to become the first player in Duke’s recruiting class of 2011.

Gbinije is rated No. 18 in the nation among this year’s juniors by Bob Gibbons of All-Star Sports in Lenoir, N.C., who calls Gbinije an athletic wing player who should fit perfectly in Duke's motion offense.

Gbinije also had scholarship offers from Wake Forest, Maryland, Clemson, Georgetown, Syracuse, West Virginia, Villanova, Indiana and others. He is averaging 18 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Former Benedictine player Ed Davis is a starter for the North Carolina Tar Heels, but has been injured for the better part of this season.

St. Frances is coached by Mark Karcher, whose ACIT MVP performance as well as a St. Frances title were sandwiched by his two Outstanding Player performances in 1995 and 1997.

St. Frances is lead by second-team Baltimore Catholic League performer Dante Holmes, who leads the team in scoring and rebounding. Senior Wayne Sparrow, who will play next year for Richmond, was first team all-BCL, while junior center Gregory Lewis was second team, and point guard R.J. Williams honorable mention.

Yerkovich’s final hurrah; Atkins to ND

Mount St. Joseph, which fell to Calvert Hall in the BCL final, sports the Baltimore Catholic League Player of the Year for the second year a row in senior point guard Eric Atkins, who has started all four years for the Gaels.

Atkins, who will play at Notre Dame, is averaging 15 points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Just as the Maryland Terrapins did in the ACC, the Gaels swept the two top awards in the BCL, as head coach Pat Clatchey was selected Coach of the Year. The 18-year coach, who has 427 career wins at Mount St. Joseph, guided the Gaels to their sixth regular-season championship since 2003 and to three BCL tournament championships.

For the Judge Memorial Bulldogs, their 13th trip from Salt Lake City to Cumberland and Frostburg will be bittersweet. The program gears to reach the ACIT in targeted seasons when head coach Jim Yerkovich feels it will be good enough to compete in this field. Thus, the Bulldogs are pleased to be part of the historic 50th ACIT field. However, the weekend will mark the final three games in the coaching career of Yerkovich, who has announced his retirement from coaching at his alma mater after 44 years.

Yerkovich has won more games, 634, than any high school, college or professional coach in Utah state history other than Jerry Sloan. He announced his retirement three days after the Bulldogs played for the 3A state championship.

Under Yerkovich, Judge reached 38 state tournaments, won 16 region championships, played in nine state championship games and won three 3A state championships. Former Judge player and veteran assistant coach Dan Del Porto will succeed Yerkovich as head coach.

The Bulldogs are led by all-stater Zach Myaer, 5-8 senior guard, who averages 12.7 points and 4.2 assists per game. Will Whitt, 6-10 senior center, is also an all-stater, with junior Daniel Shiramizu honorable mention.

Oladipo future Hoosier; Grant Irish

DeMatha entered the season with huge expectations and are in the process of meeting just about every one of them, although an undefeated season, of course, is now out of the question.

The Stags, who have won a landslide record 19 ACIT titles, are the top-ranked team in Washington, the WCAC champion as well as the D.C. City champion, clinching those titles with a 71-52 win over No. 3 Gonzaga, and an 80-70 win over No. 2 Ballou.

One of the most talented DeMatha teams in years (think about that), forward Victor Oladipo has signed with Indiana, and forward Jerian Grant with Notre Dame. Guard Quinn Cook, who scored 30 points in the WCAC title game, is one of the most highly-recruited juniors in the country and plays for the under-17 U.S. national team. Junior center Mikael Hopkins is also being highly recruited as well as sophomore guard James Robinson.

Cathedral has been led by Jamar Coke, Brock Barnett and Norman Darrell.

Play in the ACIT resumes Friday at 4 p.m., and will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday. Saturday’s championship game is scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m.

For more information, go to alhambratournament.org.

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Write to him at mburke@times-news.com