Mesa Mountain View and McClintock high schools will be hot beds for boys basketball  Monday through Thursday as the new year approaches with both hosting invitationals in the East Valley.

Mountain View is the site for the annual Visitmesa.com Arizona Challenge.  A 16-team field featuring teams from the Valley, southern Arizona and four out-of-state squads from California, Utah and Ohio cozy up in Mesa. Only one of the team's has a sub-.500 record to date. Teams will compete in pool play Monday through Wednesday and matchup games will be determined by Wednesday afternoon to fill the Thursday schedule.

Play opens Monday with eight games each day beginning at 9 a.m. and the ending with an 8:30 p.m. tip. Teams comnpeting in the tourney are from three conferences. Those from 5A-I are Mountain View (6-0),  Red Mountain (6-4), Dobson (7-3), Mountain Pointe (6-3), Buena (9-1), St. Mary's (7-2) and Chandler (5-5); 5A-II  Horizon (7-2) and Chaparral (8-2); 4A-I Sunnyslope (9-2), 4A-II  Amphitheater (9-1) and 2A power Westwind Prep (11-0).

Out-of state teams are 5-0 Archbishop Moeller (Cincinnati, Ohio); 8-2 Lutheran (Orange, Calif.); 2-5 Serra High (Gardena, Calif.) and 4-1 Brighton High (Salt Lake City, Utah). 

First-round games Monday at Visitmesa.com are: 9 a.m. - Sunnyslope vs. St. Mary's; 10:30 a.m. - Mountain Pointe-Westwind Prep; Noon - Chaparral vs. Chandler; 1:30 p.m. - Horizon vs. Serra, Calif.; 4 p.m. - Dobson vs. Moeller; 5:30 p.m. - Amphitheater vs. Orange Lutheran, Calif.; 7 p.m. - Mountain View vs. Buena; 8:30 p.m. - Red Mountain vs. Brighton, Utah.

Over in Tempe, McClintock High entertains a field of 16 at its annual McClintock Holiday Shootout. The format is a a 16-team bracket with most schools playing four games and all teams guaranteed three.

Schools competing are Pinnacle (8-1), Apollo (9-2), Desert Mountain (7-2), Brophy (6-2), Corona del Sol (6-2), Marcos de Niza (6-2), Basha (6-3), Hamilton (5-3), Higley (4-2), Saguaro (6-6), McClintock (5-6), Willow Canyon (4-5), Desert Ridge (3-4), Coronado (4-7), Trevor Browne (2-4) and Mountain Ridge (0-9).

Eight games are played Monday through Wednesday with the first game beginning at 10 a.m. and the last tipping off at 8:30 p.m..

First-round games Monday are: 10 a.m. - Trevor Browne vs. Brophy; 11:30 a.m. -  Marcos de Niza vs. Willow Canyon; 1 p.m. - Desert Mountain vs. Saguaro; 2:30 p.m. - Corona del Sol vs. Coronado; 4 p.m. - Apollo vs. Hamilton; 5:30 p.m. - Basha vs. Pinnacle; 7 p.m. - Higley vs. McClintock and 8:30 p.m. - Mountain Ridge vs. Desert Ridge.

On Thursday consolation games are set for 2:30 and 4 p.m.. The third-place game is at 5:30 and the championship game at 7 p.m.