Iolani's Sheyla Kahalehoe drives to the basket against Saint Mary's in the semifinals of the 2014 Girls Iolani Prep Classic. Tyler Kanoa | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

For the South Medford Lady Panthers (Medford, Ore.) and the Bishop O'Dowd Dragons (Oakland, Calif.), this is no vacation.

Both teams are in Honolulu for the ninth annual Iolani Girls Prep Classic basketball tournament, which gets underway today at the Iolani lower gym.

In addition to the two West coast teams, the eight-team tournament also includes some of the top local squads, headlined by reigning Division I state champion Konawaena. Lahainaluna, the other team in last year's state final, is also in the field, along with Punahou of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. Mililani and Radford of the Oahu Interscholastic Association and host Iolani are the other teams in the tournament.

Konawaena defeated a pair of mainland powers last year in Miramonte (Orinda, Calif.) and Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, MD) to reach the title game, but fell short against St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), a team that went on to a 34-1 record, won the California Interscholastic Federation Open Division state crown and is currently the No. 1 in the nation, according to USA Today's Super 25 poll.

In other words, this tournament has no shortage of talent and this year's edition is no exception.

South Medford has won five consecutive Southwest Conference titles, with a 60-0 conference mark during that span. The Lady Panthers compete in the 6A division (the highest in the state of Oregon) and are ranked fifth in the statewide media poll, fourth in the coaches poll. They compiled a 26-4 record last year and finished ranked fourth in the state.

Under eighth-year coach Tom Cole, South Medford has gone from one of the state's worst teams to a powerhouse.

The Lady Panthers were 1-47 in the two seasons prior to Cole's arrival, but are 146-48 since. He has earned conference coach of the year honors four times, including in 2012 when he led them to a 30-0 record — a first for any 6A program — and a state title.

"We've only played one game, so for us it's still very young in the season," Cole said. "We have some new pieces and we're young in some places. We're not very deep — we only brought eight kids over here — but what an honor to be in an amazing tournament like this. Everything about it has been amazing. The hospitality is phenomenal so we're very thankful and we're really honored to get a chance to play here."

South Medford is led by Julissa Tago, a 5-foot-4 senior guard, who averaged 20 points per game as a junior. Last month, Tago signed a letter of intent to play for coach Laura Beeman at the University of Hawaii next year.

"She's a two-time all-state kid and a McDonald's All-American nominee," Cole said of Tago, whose family is Samoan. "She's experienced and she's a tough competitor."

The only other senior, forward Jasmin Falls, averaged 13 points and nine rebounds per game last year. She is signed with Portland State.

Freshman guard Kaulawena Chamberlin's father is from Kailua, Kona.

"She's our first freshman starting point guard since 2009 and the last one moved on to Division I (college)," Cole said.

Cole and the Panthers got an early look at both Punahou and Iolani Tuesday night when the teams faced off in a double-overtime thriller (Punahou won, 70-67) to open the ILH season. They will face Punahou in a 5 p.m. quarterfinal Thursday.

Meanwhile, Bishop O'Dowd arrived in town Wednesday afternoon.

Like South Medford, the Dragons are making their first appearance in the Iolani Classic, but do have some familiarity with the event. Their boys team lost in the 2014 tournament final to Oak Hill (Mouth of Wilson, Va.). Both the boys and girls squads went on to win state championships last year: the boys in the open division and the girls in Division III.

Bishop O'Dowd went 25-9 last season, including a 12-0 mark in the West Alameda Conference, and finished as the No. 23 team in the state of California. It defeated Brea-Olinda — which participated in the Iolani Classic in both 2010 and 2011 — in the state final.

"We were asked to play in this tournament maybe five year ago, I think when I first came over to the school, but just the timing didn't work really well so I'm glad that we could make it happen this time," Dragons coach Malik McCord said. "We knew that if we would go, it would be with this group, so we're all really looking forward to it."

McCord said the strength of his team is its balance offensively.

"One night it can be one person or two people and the next night it can be two different people; we're really balanced," McCord said. "We can run but we can also set-up in half court, but everything starts with our defense. We strive on being well-balanced."

Junior guard Myah Pace is being heavily recruited by "a lot of Division I and BCS-type schools around the country," McCord said.

Pace scored a game-high 26 points Saturday night against Lincoln (Stockton, Calif.).

"Even though Myah had 26 the other night, we still had four, five other people in double digits. We stress to the team that they all work together."

Other top players for the Dragons include senior guard Salihah Bey — who transferred from St. Mary's a few seasons ago — sophomore guard Zakiya Mahoney and senior wing Aerial Chavarin, who averaged 9.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game last year.

Freshman guard Bianca Shaw's father is former Los Angeles Lakers' player and assistant Brian Shaw.

Bishop O'Dowd will face Lahainaluna in the 8 p.m. nightcap Thursday. McCord said he was able to acquire tape on the Lunas — both from their state title game appearance last year and last weekend's games in Kealakekua on the Big Island where they were participating in the Konawaena tournament.

"The internet and connections are a beautiful thing," McCord laughed. "We've been doing our homework; we don't play around. I'm into being prepared and the kids are used to it. Their expectation is to have some film on them so we're not just going in there blind."

Both visiting coaches said their itineraries will also include some sightseeing.

"That's the interesting problem for all teams that come here: how do you keep the kids still focused for a basketball tournament when you're in a such a beautiful place?," Cole said. "We obviously want them to have the experience of Hawaii and want them to see the island and enjoy and relax, but we also know we're here to play basketball. We try to build a focus around basketball every day and then let the kids experience Hawaii."

That might not be as easy for McCord, whose team has final exams looming next week.

"We can't come this far and not enjoy this beautiful place, so we'll definitely do that," McCord said. "They know that this is a business trip and we need to take care of our business, but we will have fun. We'll definitely go to the beach, because all the girls want to go to the beach. We're going to enjoy it."

The tournament runs through Saturday, with four games daily starting at 3:30 p.m. Saturday's championship final, which is expected to start at about 8 p.m., will be streamed live on ScoringLive.com.