PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley senior forward Marcellus Sommerville (Peoria, Ill./Central H.S.) will participate in the 54th annual Portsmouth Invitational Tournament next week in Portsmouth, Va., as he begins to prepare for a potential professional playing career.
The Portsmouth Invitational is the nation's oldest amateur basketball tournament and is heavily attended by NBA and European scouts as they evaluate future professional players. The 2006 Portsmouth Invitational will be played April 5-8 at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Va. Tickets are $8 per night or $25 for an all-session ticket (11 games) with proceeds benefitting local non-profit agencies and scholarship funds. According to the tournament's official website, www.portsmouthinvitational.com, the PIT has raised $470,000 during its historic run while awarding 112 college scholarships.
Other early commitments to the Portsmouth Invitational included Brandon Bowman (Georgetown), Brad Buckman (Texas), Torin Francis (Notre Dame) and Jose Juan Barea (Northeastern). Barea may be remembered in Peoria after scoring 18 points and dishing out six assists when the Braves beat Northeastern, 92-86, in the second round of the 2003 Las Vegas Tournament at Carver Arena.
Sommerville, a 6-foot-7 combo forward, completed his three-year Bradley career last week after leading the Braves (22-11) to the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1955. In the three tournament games versus #12 Kansas, #16 Pittsburgh and #3 Memphis, Sommerville averaged a team-best 19.0 points per game, while also adding 7.0 rebounds per contest, and he scored at least 18 points in each of the three games.
For the season, Sommerville averaged 15.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, earning second-team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors. He finished third in the Valley in scoring and fifth in rebounding, the third consecutive season has has been the only player in the league to finish among the top five in both scoring and rebounding.
A first-team all-conference pick in 2004 and 2005, Sommerville also became the first-ever Valley player to record at least 600 rebounds (662) and 150 3-point field goals (153) during a three-year period and he is just the eighth Valley player overall to reach both thresholds. He ended his career 12th on Bradley's all-time scoring list with 1,493 career points and ninth by averaging 16.2 points per game during his career.
