Austin GASO: Friday Game Recaps

At long last, the 2020 Great American Shootout Circuit has tipped off with our first tournament of the year coming to you from the Round Rock Sports Center. We've already seen some stellar performances as players look to knock the rust off after a long layoff, stay with senior writer Mark McKee as he recaps top matchups from the course of the weekend.

ASAK Elite 17s 67 Hustle Elite 51 (Blue Division)

ASAK Elite out of the Austin area took a commanding 23-point advantage in the first half, only to lose momentum in the second half. With 4:47 remaining, Hustle Elite out of Katy, trailed by only seven points at 55-48. ASAK regained control of the contest with their dribble penetration winning 67-51. Jaylen Thompson (2021) led the charge for ASAK, finishing with a game high 20 points, followed by Keshawn Williams (2021) with 12. Hustle Elite got nice performances out of Connor Champion and Trent Evans with 14 and 10 points respectively. Both teams looked rusty with numerous turnovers. Thompson commented following the game, “its been a long layoff, it took us a while to get going.”

Team RC 63 ATX Futures (Vasquez) 51 (Red Division)

Ethan Simonson (2022) and Miguel Mantilla (2021) had solid performances in Team RC’s 63-51 win of ATX Futures. Team RC is a Lake Travis squad and ATX Futures represents several schools from the Austin area. Simonson finished with 11 points and Mantilla added 14 points for Team RC. Noah Arnold (2021) and Ben Armstrong (2021) were the leaders for ATX Futures.

ATX Lockdown 2022 49 West Texas Blazers 2021 40 (Blue Division)

ATX Lockdown advanced to the 2nd round in the Blue division with a 49-40 win over West Texas Blazers 2021. Standouts for Lockdown were T.J. Johnson (2022), Wyatt Kieke (2022) and Levi Rutledge (2023). Johnson led the scoring parade with 14 points.

ATX Power 56 HD Tores Select 42 (Red Division)

ATX Power put the HD Tores Select down late 56-42 behind two strong performances by Kade Killeen (2021) and Rob Wade (2021). Wade finished with a game high 20 points. ATX Power is from the Austin area while the HD Tores Select play out of San Antonio.

THP Elite 67 D1 West Texas 65 overtime (Blue Division)

In the game of the day THP Elite snuck by D1 West Texas in overtime 67-65. Cade Holzman (2021) knocked down two pressure foul shots with 1.1 seconds left in overtime for the big win. The game was played with tremendous energy from both teams. Jelani Muhamad (2021) of D1 West Texas was awesome in a losing effort hitting seven 3-pointers and finished the evening with 25 points.

In the back and forth battle, THP Elite had the last possession at the end of regulation and the end of overtime. Each time they used a timeout to set-up their last play. On both occasions the ball was in the hands of Eain Mowat (2021), their talented point guard. The 6’0” senior from Austin Westlake hit key buckets throughout the game and put up 21 points for the game. Mowat’s ability to find the open man proved to be the difference in the game, as he spotted Holzman underneath the basket. The pass went out of bounds, but Holzman was fouled on the play.

Holzman came away with 13 points for THP Elite, followed by L.D. Butler (2021) with 11 points and Jaelyn Brooks (2022) with 10. Devin Hartfield (2021) added to the West Texas cause with 10 points.