GASO Tip-Off: Championship Sunday Recaps

The first GASO of the 2018 season came to a close on Sunday, with several big name teams taking home championships in their respective divisions. TexasHoops analyst Lyndon Cook recaps Sunday's title games and breaks down the division winners from opening weekend.

NBA Red Bracket: Team Faith 17u 69 3D Empire 16u 58

3D Empire's 16u team held their own against an extremely talented Team Faith group, but in the end Greg Brown and co. were just too much to overcome as Team Faith took home a title in a double digit win. While Brown put up some eye catching numbers over the weekend, it was his teammate Jordan Turner who powered Team Faith in the final with a 25-point day. Brown would wind up with 12 points to go with 11 from floor general Isaiah Stevens, who looks poised for a huge summer.

3D Empire's younger group only trailed by 3 at half time and nearly pulled off an upset against a mostly older Team Faith, thanks in no small part to a virtuoso 23-point game from Logan McLaughlin (Hebron 2020). Austin Garner (Byron Nelson 2020) chipped in with 14 as Baylor Hebb (Colleyville Heritage 2020) scored 13 in the championship game loss.

NBA White Bracket: Urban DFW Elite 16u 70 NJH Elite 61

NJH Elite's impressive run over the weekend came to an end at the hands of Urban DFW Elite's 16u bunch, falling 70-61 in the final game Sunday. Marco Foster (Lancaster 2020) powered Urban DFW's championship push with a team leading 15 points, with Eyan Gooden (Duncanville 2020) coming up with 12. Ahmad Richardson (Timberview 2020) and Dage Lyons (Red Oak 2020) combined to score 18 to deliver Urban a GASO championship right before the Live Period in 2 weeks.

Urban led by 9 at half and never let NJH get much closer than that as they held on to win the White Bracket championship. Brandon Okafor was solid again for NJH as he went for 12 in the loss.

NBA Blue Bracket: Urban DFW Elite 17u 70 3D Empire 17u 68

Urban DFW Elite completed a furious comeback in the dying minutes of the Blue Bracket championship game to pull out a 70-68 win over a tough 3D Empire team. Trailing 67-60 with under 2 minutes to play, Urban DFW turned up the pressure and got to the free throw line on nearly every remaining trip down the floor, culminating in an Anthony Nealon (Lincoln 2019) and-one to tie the game at 68. After a stop on the other end, Clayvon Wilson (Desoto 2019) was fouled on a loose ball and went to the line to hit 2 and win the game for Urban.

While Nealon and Wilson came through in the end, it was the combination of Zahad Munford (Carter 2019) and Duncan Powell (Desoto 2021) with 27 points between them that got Urban in position to pull off their comeback. Marcus Sasser (Red Oak 2019) finished a stellar weekend by scoring all of his 11 points in the second half.

3D Empire came oh-so-close to taking home a title by hitting 13 threes in the game and limiting what Urban does best in transition. Evan Anderson (Hebron 2019) hit 5 of his team's makes from deep on the way to scoring 16, while Brandon Haddock (Southlake Carroll 2019) added 3 more to score 16 as well.

Texas Supreme 60 Austin New Era Supreme 51

Texas Supreme captured the first NCAA division championship of the year with a spirited performance in the final, beating Austin New Era by 9. The play of Malique Pennington (Wylie 2019) elevated Texas Supreme to another level in the game and it was his team high 13 points that got them over the line in the end. Pennington's backcourt partner Jordan Nicholes (Sachse 2019) also performed well to score 11 as forward Aaron Brown (McKinney 2019) matched that total in his team's win.

A tough day shooting the ball doomed New Era Supreme to defeat after only making 4 three point attempts on the day. Colby Kalbacher (Austin 2020) accounted for 3 of those makes, leading New Era with 11 points in the game. Max Smith (Anderson 2020) had a slow start to the game but rebounded nicely to score all of his 10 points after halftime.

After both teams won their semifinal matchups, NTX Hawks 2020 and NTX Hawks 2021 decided to call off their championship game and take home the trophies for their organization.

Dallas Mustangs 2022 - Henderson 68 Nike Proskills 2022 67 F/OT

Dallas Mustangs eventually came out on top of Proskills in a game where both teams had opportunities to win it in regulation. After Mustangs tied the game at 64, Proskills got called on a travel, leaving the door open for Mustangs to steal a win at the buzzer. Their attempted game winner was deflected, however, and sent the game to OT where they out-executed Proskills down the stretch.

Mustangs 2022 were led by the combo of Kadden Price and Chase Henderson, who both had big games of 18 and 15 respectively. Brendan Hausen was feeling it from outside with 3 made threes, and wound up with 14 in the game. For Proskills it was all about CJ Booker and Qwelon Parks. The duo scored 18 a piece and their offense powered Proskills for much of the game. Parks scored all of his team's points in overtime, but will be regretting a missed free throw that could have tied things up late.

Oklahoma Power 2023 64 BMM 2023 41

Oklahoma Power will cross state lines with some hardware in tow, comprehensively beating BMM 2023 in the championship game by a 23-point margin.. The first half served as a statement of intent for Oklahoma Power, as they rattled off shot after shot to take a 14-point advantage into halftime and never looked back.

Diante Palmer led a balanced scoring attack with 19 points for OK Power, 11 of which came in the second half. Helping Palmer out in the scoring department were Jerid Sandoval and Justin Aybui, who finished with 9 and 8 respectively. BMM has some definite talent on their roster, but on this day they just couldn't keep up with their opponents and went home as runners-up.

Proskills 2024 72 JAMMERS 49

Proskills 2024 took home the youngest division championship up for grabs at the GASO after easing past JAMMERS with a 23-point victory. Proskills only led by 7 at halftime but an explosive second half put the game to bed with time to spare.

*No player information available for this game