LAS VEGAS, NV – A group of Region 9 stars that make up the 24/7 Hoops team are playing great on the summer AAU circuit. After a week in Anaheim, Calif., the team headed down to Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Live tournament.
The 24/7 Hoops team consists of Pine View’s High School Dallin Milne and Collin Dowdell, Snow Canyon’s Chandler Gines (out with an ACL injury), Gabe Jensen, Kallan Webster and Nate Gottfredson, Copper Hills’s Tyler Lazenby and Dustin Graham, Dixie’s DeShon Brown and Cedar’s Sterling Barnes.
The team opened pool play against a team from Hawaii. The 24/7 Hoops squad led throughout, pushing the lead to over 30 points in the second half. The final score was 71-50. Webster led the way with 24 points while Gottfredson added 16. Jensen and Lazenby chipped in with 14 points each.
The second game of pool play was against the Arizona Stars team Mims. Unfortunately, 24/7 Hoops let this one get away from them. The team opened up the game on a 9-0 run, led by two Jensen 3-pointers. In fact, 24/7 Hoops led by as many as 12 points in the first half. But the team from Arizona made a great comeback and took its first lead of the game with just over one minute to play. The Arizona Stars held on for an eight-point win. Lazenby led the way for 24/7 with 29 points.
The final game of pool play was against the Northwest Cougars from Montana. This time 24/7 jumped out to an early lead and held on to win by 15 points. The win made it a three-way tie atop the group with 24/7 Hoops getting the point differential win.
For winning the group the boys from Southern Utah went on to the Platinum pool. In their first round game 24/7 Hoops took on Hoopstown from California. Hoopstown was a team full of kids who just graduated and were looking. Hoopstown used their age to their advantage make very smart plays, building a huge lead early in the game. Most people would have thought the game was over when the team of Southern Utah stars trailed by 17 points with just under seven minutes left in the game, but that wasn’t the case. The team fought back behind great defense from Milne and Brown and great outside shooting from Lazenby, Webster and Jensen. With 26 seconds left, 24/7 Hoops took its first lead of the game after Lazenby drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Hoopstown was not able to score on the other end and the 24/7 Hoops team was fouled and was able to push the lead to three points. Hoopstown had a chance to tie with a 3-point field goal, but the shot came up short and 24/7 Hoops advanced to the sweet 16.
In the sweet 16, 24/7 Hoops took on the Miami Tropics, a Nike-sponsored team with seven members of the team on the Under 17 Puerto Rican National squad.
In this game, 24/7 Hoops started off great, opening with an 8-4 lead. But the more experienced and bigger Tropics team was able to take back the lead with 12-0 run. The Tropics led by 25 at the half, but once again 24/7 Hoops fought back, cutting the lead to as little as 15 in the second half. When the game was over, the Tropics had won by 19 points.
The local 24/7 Hoops team will head back to Vegas this week to play in the Adidas Super 64. The team opens up pool play against the South Texas Irish at Desert Pines High School. The second game in pool play 24/7 Hoops plays the Nor Cal Runners at Eldorado High School. The last game of pool play 24/7 Hoops takes on Flagstaff Hoops Elite at Green Valley High School.
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Copyright 2012 St. George News.