EOTO Brings Home Knox Vegas 15U Crown

Chase Ridenour (Knoxville Webb) drops a runner with precious seconds remaining lifting EOTO to the 15U crown at the annual Knox Vegas Heat Invitational over Kentucky Hoop Dreams.

Sompayrac was high man for EOTO with 13 followed closely by Silas Clark (Cumberland County) with 10.

 

 

 

EOTO cruised through their pool action at 3-0 then had a tussle with the South Carolina Hornets in quarter-final action finally prevailing 57-56 to set up a nice semi-final clash with the Chattanooga Elite Grey squad.

KaJuan Hale-Ligon (Austin East) led a four pack of double digit scorers to a resounding 73-59 victory. Clark added 14 in the win while Tykee Kellog (Alcoa) and Caleb Martin (Oak Ridge) each finished with 10.

Junior Clay (McCallie) took game scoring honors with 26 points in the loss.

Coaches were quick to point out the contributions from several others in their championship run including the aforementioned Ridenour, Jack Sompayrac (Knoxville Catholic) and Jacquez Booker (Fulton).

The Chattanooga Elite Grey squad came out of pool play in the 2nd spot yet rallied with a bracket win over Hoop Dreams 78-68 before getting past an emotional Team NLP 53-52 behind 23 from Clay.

CEG got superb efforts from a host of important players including Jordan Sterling (McCallie) and Shannon Walker (McCallie).

Team NLP started with a bang taking their pool with a 3-0 mark before falling in their initial bracket game to the Elite.

Jessie Walker (Brainerd) lead NLP in scoring with 11 followed closely by Patrick Urey (Baylor) with 10.

The Free Agents also finished the tournament going 3-0 in pool play before falling to the Western Kentucky Elite 65-62 in bracket action.

 

In the 16U division no Tennessee teams won their pool but three managed to grab 2nd place finishes.

The Chattanooga Elite finished 2-1 but fell in their first bracket game 71-65 to the South Carolina Hornets.

EOTO had much the same fate finishing 2-1 in pool play before falling to the Louisville Magic 65-26 in playoff action.

The Nashville Beat also managed a 2nd play pool play finish falling to the Florida Showtime Ballers 76-51 in bracket action.

Kody Eden (Station Camp) and Austin Fisher (Clarksville Academy) played well for the Beat throughout the event.