Not much attention gets paid to the City Section's "Invitational" bracket, and we also have to confess that we're as much to blame for that as anyone.  Why?  Because it's hard to get excited when one stops to consider that this tournament will determine which team gets to declare that the winner and champion is No. 17 overall among City Section teams.  It's further hard to get too ramped about this when you also consider the fact that neither the winner nor the runner-up in this bracket get to compete in the State Tournament, making this tournament the second cousin of the "Division VI" (as in 6) tournament which is held in the CIF Northern Section....the winner of which also doesn't get to go to the State tournament either.

Still though, all things considered, this tournament is pretty decent and has featured some good competition, and we don't mean to denigrate the quality of play simply because some admin types in the CIF have determined that these teams shall play in a self-contained tournament which doesn't qualify for the State tournament like every other playoff bracket now taking place all over California.    So what's happened since last Friday night and who is playing today?  Here's what we know:

The Semifinals will take place today, and unlike the City Championship bracket, they will not be played at arena-style venues, but will be played at the home court of the higher seeded team.  All games will be at 7:30 p.m. tonight.  Here's what's up:

Upper Half of Bracket:

No. 8 Jefferson @ No. 4 King Drew

Lower Half of Bracket:

No.  14 LA Poly @ No. 2 North Hollywood

Here's a look at the bracket:

No. 8 Jefferson 92, No. 1 L.A. Jordan 72 --Gary White had 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead visiting Jefferson (12-10). Travis Lee added 18 points and 12 assists for Jefferson.

No. 4  King-Drew 75, No. 12 Chatsworth 58 --Jamaal Thomas had 16 points, Daniel Stewart had eight points, 14 rebounds and four blocks and Marcus Rogers had 13 points and 10 rebounds to lead host King-Drew (19-6), which led, 45-44, with three minutes left in the third quarter. Sterling Stegall scored 15 points for Chatsworth (13-13).

Lower Half of Bracket:

No. 14 LA Poly 70, No. 11 Narbonne 69 --Omar Castaneda hit a lay-up with two seconds remaining to lift visiting Poly. Gerardo Cuniga led the Parrots (14-13) with 25 points.

No. 2 North Hollywood 60, No. 10 Venice 52 --DeAndre Lamar and Beewee Vallesteros each scored 13 to lead host North Hollywood (15-11) over Venice (8-14).