TexasHoops writer Mark McKee summarizes several games from Sunday at the Great American Shootout's San Antonio event, highlighting some top notch individual and team performances in the process.

TRT Spring Creek Academy 73 Select One 39

TRT ran away with this one in the second half behind the explosive play of German Plotnikov (Spring Creek Academy 2020). The young man has only been in the country one year and is from Belarus. Plotnikov put up 15 points in the second half for TRT and finished with game high 25 on the day. Zino Bedri (Spring Creek Academy 2021) was active in all phases of the game. The young Algerian’s enormous size effected the game on both ends of the court.

JL3 15-U 63 Modern Era Basketball 58

Nehikhare Igiehon (St. Stephens 2022) and Terrance Arceneaux (Beaumont United 2022) paced their team to victory over Modern Era. Arceneaux had a fine effort with 13 points, while Igiehon came away with 18 points.

PB Nation/YllS 16-U 74 UC Hoops 64

UC Hoops had an excellent effort against PB Nation, but in the end came up short losing 74-64. UC Hoops had several bright spots with Jackson Robinson (S.A. Churchill 2020) putting up six treys during the game and totaled 20 points. Austin Kenwisher (Smithson Valley 2020) also hit two big threes in the second half to close the gap on PB Nation. The difference in the game was PB Nation’s eleven three pointers. Christian Ashby (Atascocita 2021) finished with five treys and 18 points to lead the PB Nation attack. Trevor Passmore (Cypress Woods 2021) got into the act hitting four treys as well

3D Empire 15U 69 SA Strykers 61

3D opened up a big lead early but failed to capitalize from the foul stripe late, allowing the Strykers back into the contest. 3D was up at half 40-25 and looked as if they had things under control. The Strykers were energized by their coach and played aggressive in the second half. Terrance Ramirez (Grapevine 2022) and Nazir Brown (L.D. Bell 2022) were the scoring leaders as usual for 3-D finishing with 24 and 17 points. Ramirez had been one of the more prolific scorers in the GASO weekend tournament previously putting up 28 and 21 points. Ryan Agarwal (Coppell 2022) was steady inside for 3-D and Zane Hicke (Flower Mound Marcus 2022) continued playing hard on both ends of the court.

PB Nation YllS 69 JL3 Elite 15-U 47

PB Nation continued their winning defeating JL 3 Elite 69-47. Cameron Morrison (Atascocita 2021) led the way for PB Nationwith 16 points. The highlight of the GASO tournament may have been Sekou Kalle’s (Apire 2021) high pass off the glass to a trailing Onu Samuel Ayomide (Texas Christian 2021), who threw it down for a power jam. Wow! John Lucas 3 Elite gave a great account of themselves with Jordon Williams (Kinkaid School 2022) directing the troops. Williams displayed point guard skills penetrating and dishing. Williams running mate, Amaree Abrams (Pt. Arthur Memorial 2022), showed a feathery left handed touch scoring from inside and out for JL 3 Elite.Williams tied Abrams for high point honors with 13 points

HD Toros Elite 81 JL3 16-U 79

HD Toros almost lost a 20-point lead against JL 3 16-U. The Toros were cruising along looking as if they had things under control and all of sudden Cameron Amboree (Foster 2022) started draining 3’s. The JL fans woke up and things began to get really interesting. JL 3 Elite actually tied the game with 21 seconds left at 79 on a Noah Robledo putback. Kino Thompson of the Toros Elite responded by taking the ball at mid-court and drove in for the lay-up. The bucket proved to be the winning basket, giving the Toros an 81-79 victory. JL had an opportunity to tie things with the last shot, but airballed a three pointer. Griffin Datcher (Conroe Oakridge 2021) led the way for JL with 23 points with Ambroee finishing with 12 points. As always the Toros showed balanced scoring, paced by Jalen Mangum’s (S.A. Sunnybrook Christian) 17 points and Jaden Moore’s (SA Brennan 2020) 15.

Upside Athletics 67 Centex Attack-Dewitty 59

Upside Athletics led start to finish in the finals of the NCAA division against Center Attack. Upside is out of the Houston area and Center Attack comes out of Austin. Mason McBride (Manvel 2021) was up to the challenge for Upside putting up 22 points, as he assaulted the basket with his athleticism. The talented McBride was joined in double figures by Drew Calderson’s(College Park 2021) 18 points and C. J. Jackson’s (Ft. Bend Marshall 2021) 12 points. Upside played a two-three zone throughout and Attack’s Michael Sickles (Leander 2020) loved it. Sickles ripped the nets from the right wing for 16 points and five treys. Joining Sickles in the scoring wave was Matthew Pennington (Shoemaker 2020), who put up 25 points and Brandon Phuckett (Leander 2021) with 12 points. Upside was up by nine at intermission.