GASO Austin/Round Rock: Championship Recaps

Round Rock - The Great American Shoot-Out made it's final stop before the July Open Period, outside of Austin at the Round Rock Sports Center. With over 100 teams participating, the GASO crowned six teams.

Here are the winners of the two-day event.

Urban ASAK 61 THP Elite 60

The clash of the titans was in the NBA Blue Championship with the matchup of Texas Hardwood Prospects Elite and Urban ASAK 17s. Both teams breezed through pool play with matching 2-0 records, coming by 20 plus points. In the semifinals, THP Elite would battle against a competitive HD Toros squad, winning by one point, 70 – 69. Urban ASAK 17s would be experiencing their first real test of the tournament as Centex Attack National 17s would battle from 20 down early to close within five points. Urban ASAK would win 69-64.

In the championship game, Urban ASAK 17s looked to be taking a steady 5-point lead into the halftime break, led by Brock Cunningham’s 12 first half points. Instead, THP Elite would turn on the press scoring eight straight points all on layups off of turnovers in the last minute of the half. It would give them a 31-28 lead, led by DeAndre Johnson’s eight first half points and 18 for the game. He not only led them in this game but for the tournament as a whole.

The tone set by the end of the first half would carry over to the second. Neither team would get more than a five-point lead. Coming down inside the last minute, THP Elite would have to foul and hope Urban ASAK 17s would miss the free throw to get it back. This is exactly what would happened. THP Elite would get the ball back with 20 left down 59-58. THP's Mark Wilson’s number was called, and he would split the defense and get the layup to give THP Elite the 60-59 lead with 12 left. Urban ASAK 17s would get their final chance and to no one’s shock, Cunningham would get the ball. In his best Dirk Nowitzki impersonation, he would hit a step back one legged fade on the baseline to put Urban ASAK 17s up 61-60 with :02 left. THP Elite would turn it over on the inbound pass ending the game.

Not to be overlooked, Antoine James added 14 points all in the second half for ASAK. James and Cunningham scored 27 of the 33 second half points put up by ASAK as a team. For THP Elite, Wilson with 10 points, Tim Holland seven second-half points, and Johnson’s 10 points would combine for 27 of the team’s 29 points. In the end, the title would be Urban ASAK 17s to take home for the 2nd time this year.

TX D1 Ambassadors West Texas 62 ATX Future 17s 53

The NBA Red Championship would be between a 2-0 Pool winner ATX Future 17s and the 1-1 second place pool team, whose only loss was to the Blue Champions Urban ASAK 17s, TX D1 Ambassadors West Texas. Both teams were coming off convincing wins in the semifinals.

The first half of this game was between two teams fighting tooth and nail for the championship and neither giving an inch. Neither team would pull away with D1 Ambassadors West Texas taking a 25-24 lead into the half behind nine from leading scorer Daniel Venzant and six from Nathan Betts. ATX Future would be led by the strong play of Donovan Armstrong, who had 14 and Kordell Stiggers with seven.

The second half would follow a different track. D1 Ambassadors West Texas feeling how close they were to their first title, Venzant would take over with 13 points and 9-9 from the line for the game high 22 points. Betts would add six more, for 12 total, along with Adam Rivera with 6 of his 11 and Jeremie Karnbaye with all seven of his coming in the second half. They would get a lead late and never release hold of it, pulling away in the final minutes.

Armstrong would finish with a team-high 20 points but cooled off in the second half only managing six points. Stiggers would join him in double figures at 10 and Darian McDonald would get eight, all in the second half. Both teams would finish with identical 4-1 records. This was the fourth trip to the championship bracket for D1 Ambassadors West Texas and the first for ATX Future 17s this season.

Corpus Christi Bruins 71 Urban ASAK 34

Corpus Christi Bruins came in riding a wave of success with a 3rd place finish in College Station and a 2nd place finish at Pearland but missing their starting point guard, Creighton Avery, who was at Texas A&M-Corpus camp. Urban ASAK 15’s would be their opponent in the finals. Both teams were coming in off hard-fought semifinal games.

Corpus Christi Bruins would bull rush their way to a 37-24 lead behind their size and experience. They were able to force a slower more methodical tempo while making the most of their transition opportunities. John Cantu was the primary catalyst with 16 points in the first half. Melijah Wesley would pace Urban ASAK 15s to the tune of 10 first half points.

After the halftime break, Urban ASAK 15s would illustrate the damage fatigue can do to youth managing a total of 14 points. On the other hand, the Corpus Christi Bruins would tack on 34 points and ultimately pull away. In dominating fashion, they won their 1st GASO NCAA Championship, 71-34.

Six-foot-8 Dalin Williams would pitch in 15 points while John Cantu led both teams with 24, Peyton Smith and Nick Guerra would both contribute 8. Urban ASAK 15’s would be led by Wesley and Kylin Robinson, who each contributed 24 points.

Texas Soldiers 58 Austin Finest 29

Texas Soldiers and Austin Finest would meet in the GASO NIT finals. Both teams had made pretty easy work of their opponents coming in with matching 4-0 records and double-digit margins of victory. However, this would be where the similarities would end.

The closest the game would get was at the tip as the Texas Soldiers swarmed Austin Finest to jump out to a 29-15 lead to the half. The Texas Soldiers would mix the scoring around with six different scorers led by Millan Fernandes 12 points. Austin Finest would be led by Willie Rhines III and Omar Smart, who contributed five each.

Texas Soldiers would continue the theme of having a stingy defense in the 2nd half allowing only two made FG's to 11 of their own. They would cruise to a 58-29 victory. Fernandes 12 points would lead all scorers followed by ten from teammate Jelen Hanspard and nine from each Johnathan and Kevin McCullar. Rhines III would add three more points in the 2nd half to reach 8 for the game for Austin Finest.

North Texas Elite 74 Texas Elite CRU Brown 58

North Texas Elite rolled through the tournament on the way to the 8th grade championship. In the games before the championship, they had compiled a 40 plus point margin of victory. Their opponent, Texas Elite Cru Brown, had dominated pool play with a similar margin of victory but found the bracket play to be slightly more difficult winning their semifinal by 11 points.

At the start of the championship game, it looked to be a clash of the titans. Each team would exchange baskets for the first five minutes. Then, North Texas Elite started to exert their power. By halftime, they had opened up a 39-24 lead. They came with a business like work ethic with the only one goal in mind, taking home the championship trophy.

In the second half, Texas Elite Cru Brown would rally the troops and claw their way back into the game. They would cut the lead down to nine. However, the pressing attack of North Texas Elite would wear them down and eventually push the lead back to 20. For the final four minutes, Texas Elite Cru Brown would be able to chip off enough to keep it from being a running clock but never enough to really put North Texas Elite in fear of losing the title. At the buzzer, North Texas Elite would look up to see it reflect the 74-58 final score in their favor. It would be their first GASO crown of the year.

North Texas Elite 54 ATX Knights 2021 51