Houston Elite Action Sports’ The Last Stand boys basketball tournament at Pin Oak Middle finished off its bracket play on Sunday. Teams were broken into Gold, Silver, and Bronze brackets to see who would advance to the championship game in each bracket.

After Saturday’s action, eight teams earned the No. 1 seed placement that put them into the Gold bracket. Those teams were: Houston Hoopsters, Port Arthur Heat, Another Level Stars, Rashad Lewis All Stars, Houston Elite, Team Woodlands, North Channel Cyclones, and the Houston Powerhouse.

The tournament championship trophy went to the Houston Elite team with a 69-58 victory over Houston Hoopsters.

Championship Game: Houston Elite vs. Houston Hoopsters (Gold Bracket)
The Elite team’s run-and-gun basketball game proved to be difference as they defeated the Hoopsters 69-58. This style of play was needed, as the Hoopsters are known for their tenacious style of defense, especially with the full-court press.

With a 41-34 lead at half, it seemed the Elite would have one easily in the bag. But several points off turnovers and solid three-point shooting brought the Hoopsters back in to the game many times.

Elite’s Tim Frazier and Dominique Andrews got things fired up by breaking the press and capitalizing with several transitions buckets. Andrews was the game’s leading scorer with 21 points while the Hoopsters’ Nesbitt led his team with 16 points.

Championship Game: Houston Pride vs. Northside Select (Silver Bracket)
The Pride team that led them to 71-49 victory over Select dominated this game in the second half. At the end of the first half the score was 36-29 in favor of Pride, which meant it was anybody’s game..

The name of this game was defense and the Pride stuck to it. The full court press caused many turnovers. The Pride offense, led by Brandon Williams, earned plenty of points by penetrations and catching the Select defense off guard.

But the Select team went down fighting. They matched bucket-for-bucket along the stretch but just didn’t keep up with the Pride’s transition game. Pride’s DeWayne Wade and Gary Cox both ended the game with 15 points. John Wolf led the Select squad with 15 points as well.

Loser Game: Team Woodlands vs. North Channel Cyclones (Gold Bracket)
The Cyclones squad earned the victory 76-60. Leading scorers were Kirk Van Slyke (Woodlands) with 21 and Ryan Hagan (NC Cyclones) with 18.

Gold Bracket Play: Houston Powerhouse vs. Houston Elite (2 p.m.)
The Elite pulled out a nail biting victory over the Powerhouse 67-65. Andrews, who was also the game’s leading scorer with 21 points, hit the game-winning shot with less than five seconds remaining. Powerhouse’s Shaun Uneh was his team’s high scorer with 16 points.

Gold Bracket Play: Houston Hoopsters vs. Another Level (2 p.m.)
A huge second half push by Another Level was not enough as the Hoopsters won 82-77. M. Davis, of the Hoopsters, was the team’s leading scorer (21 points). Shashank Ranganathan, of Another Level, ended the game with 28 points.

 Houston Elite wins 'The Last Stand'

By:  Jim Hicks (RCS Sports)

Two sport star, 2009 Dominique Andrews scored a game high 21pts as the Houston Elite beat Houston Hoopstars (69-57) in the title game of The Last Stand summer basketball tournament held at Pin Oak MS this past weekend.  It was all Dwight Miller (12 of his 14pts) in the first half, but teammate Andrews was "da man" the entire game.   Andrews was aggressive on both ends of the court, and often used his muscular build to get to the rack as well as the free throw line.  The Hoopstars never found a rhythm offensively, and hit only 18/65fg, including a dismal 6/35 from behind the arc.  Elliott Lloyd (who knocked down 8 treys in a huge 74-55 pool win over Houston Hoops) could muster only one long ball to fall despite seven attempts).  Leading scorer, Aaron Davis missed nine of his eleven three pointers.  Fatigue had officially took its toll on many of these young men.  Still, the game was tied at 48 with 11:40 remaining.  Three minutes later, a free throw by Leo Probese trimmed the deficit to 56-50, but that was as close as the Hoopstars got the rest of the game.  At the 5:35 mark, a sweet dunk by 2009 Garland Green pushed the lead back to double digits (60-50) and the Elite never looked back.

HE (69):  2009 Dominique Andrews 21 (8/12fg, 0/1trey, 5/7ft),  Dwight Miller 14 (6/8fg, 0/1trey, 2/2ft),  2009 Matt Staff 11 (4/6fg, 0/1trey, 3/3ft),   2009 Tim Frazier 10 (3/5fg, 4/4ft),  2009 Garland Green 9 (3/7fg, 2/4treys, 1/2ft),  Brandon Thomas 2 (1/4fg), 2009 Mark Brooks 2 (0fg, 2/2ft) 

HS (57):  Demeko Nesbitt 16 (4/10fg, 2/7treys, 6/6ft),  Aaron Davis 14 (5/16fg, 2/11treys, 2/2ft),  Elliott Lloyd 8 (3/12fg, 1/7treys, 1/2ft), Howard Risher 7 (1/9fg, 0/4treys, 5/6ft),  Ryan Reed 6 (3/10fg, 0/2treys),  Leo Probese 3 (1/4fg, 1/2ft), Athon Branch 3 (1/2fg, 1/2treys), Micah Chester 0 (0/2fg, 0/2treys