It may be summer vacation, but erstwhile Santa Fe Indian School basketball standouts Jenine and Justina Coriz are nonetheless up to big things on the hardwood.

The Coriz sisters, who helped lead Santa Fe Indian School to the 2010 Class AAA girls state basketball title, have been playing their club basketball this summer with the Gallup Lady Huskies.

Jenine and Justina Coriz and the rest of the Lady Huskies will get some high-profile roundball exposure this week at the Native American Basketball Invitational in Phoenix.

The tournament — which begins today and concludes Saturday — is being co-sponsored by the WNBA this year for the first time, and will serve partly as an opportunity for college scouts to get a peek at some of the country's top Native American prep basketball players.

"I'm excited because it's an all-Native American tournament," Jenine Coriz says. "Plus, all the scouts that will be there. They're using it as a showcase for scouts who are scouting for colleges — it should be pretty exciting."

Jenine Coriz — a senior-to-be at SFIS — has been a starter for the Lady Braves since she joined the varsity as a freshman.

She has high hopes that her and Justina — who will be a sophomore this year — can help the Lady Huskies reach the tournament's championship game, which will be held on Saturday at the US Airways Center in Phoenix — the home of the NBA's Suns and the WNBA's Mercury.

"That would be pretty cool to play there," Jenine Coriz says of the US Airways Center. "You see games on TV there all the time."

The Coriz sisters caught the eye of the Lady Huskies head coach Vernon Thompson while leading Santa Fe Indian School to the state title in The Pit in March. Jenine Coriz said that her and Justina have played in a handful of club tournaments with the Lady Huskies since joining the team in April.

The sisters, who are members of both Cochiti Pueblo and Santo Domingo Pueblo, are the lone representatives from Northern New Mexico on a squad otherwise composed of Navajo players from Gallup and the surrounding area.

Jenine Coriz says she is looking forward to seeing how the Lady Huskies stack up against some of the nation's top Native American squads this week.

"There should be some great players, some really good players, and some good competition," Jenine Coriz says. "So we'll see how it goes."

Contact Jon Sward at jsward39@gmail.com.