Flower Mound wins Consolation, Strake Jesuits takes third in San Antonio
Caleb Lohner scored 15 points and teammate Tyler Stuempfig drilled four three-pointers for 12 points to give Flower Mound the Northside/North East Consolation Championship trophy, as they beat Lubbock Monterey 56-48.
During the first round of bracket play, Flower Mound, who was one of the favorites to win the Northside/North East Invitational went down in defeat against San Antonio Central Catholic with two seconds left after Central Catholic hit a three. After that loss, Flower Mound convincingly won three straight games and took home the consolation title.
“We have a great group of guys with great work ethic and attitude,” said head Flower Mound coach Eric Littleton. “We have had unprecedented success over the last seven years and we started talking last spring about being complacent. It’s a word that I use quite frequently and I have been frustrated, and Thursday we were complacent.”
Things started to turn around for Littleton’s Jaguars even though the team had to overcome some bad starts to their games in San Antonio.
“We started badly in games this weekend and were complacent, but we are a really good team. When we come out with high energy and a high level of focus we are good and we are going to win.”
Six Flower Mound Jaguars scored in their final game Saturday and the offense was in sync throughout the whole game.
“They are an unselfish team and there is no ego on this team,” added Littleton. “We are great passers with a lot of skill as basketball players.”
Littleton preaches extra possessions and he told TexasHoops.com that he had a few players who stepped up for his team.
“[Jeffrey] Mills and Lohner is who everyone looks to, but we got great minutes out of Gavin Green, Jack Richter and Tyler Stuempfig as well as Mason Cosby and Sam Toeniskoetter. These guys are in support roles and at stretches, they shot the ball well and ran the floor to get rebounds to keep the ball in our hands to make plays. I am very proud of our guy’s team effort.”
Houston Strake Jesuit traveled to San Antonio for the Northside/North East Invitational and came away with a third-place finish after beating San Antonio Stevens, 57-53.
The Strake Jesuit Crusaders were led by senior guard Jordan Johnson and his 21 points. Johnson went 5-for-6 from the free-throw line and hit two three-pointers in the four-point win. Sophomore guard Edgar Romero joined Johnson as the only other Crusader with double digits in the scoring column, adding 11 points.
Head Jesuit coach, Dominic Amorosa spoke about his team’s efforts over the three-day tournament.
“It was a good weekend for us,” said Amorosa. “We were able to find out what type of line up would work and tried different rotations and played a lot of our guys. We have a lot of pieces to this team and we are young. We found out a lot about ourselves and hope to get more out of our players and take these types of experiences into district play.”
Johnson is in his third year on varsity and has started over 50 games for Strake Jesuit. Amorosa said that Johnson knows the game and is a true floor general.
“Jordan has seen everything on the floor. His role has changed since he was a sophomore and now he is a leader and it’s like having a coach on the floor for us.”
Johnson was balanced on his point production scoring 11 points in the first half and then finishing with 10 in the second.
“We played hard and played with no fear,” said Johnson who led all scorers. “We are making progress and we had success this weekend. Things started opening up for me in the second half and I was able to get to the basket and score.”
Stevens Scorers…
Senior, Jerene Batts had a team-high for Stevens with 13, while junior Robe Mendives tallied 12.