Leigh entered the Shootout as one of the pre-tournament favorites, and the Longhorns opened with back-to-back wins to get into the finals. But their opponent in that championship game turned out to be a surprise contender—the Branham Bruins. And those Bruins gave the Longhorns all they could handle.

Leigh held off a comeback bid by the Bruins and managed to squeeze out a 52-50 victory to take home the 2003 championship trophy.

Leigh was able to build a 26-19 halftime lead behind the strong play of tournament Most Valuable Player Marcus Morgan, who popped in 24 points, and all-tournament team pick Ryan Wilkinson, who fired in 17.

The two teams matched each other blow for blow and point for point in the third quarter, leaving the Bruins with a tough road to travel in the final quarter. But they gave it a valiant effort as they began to make up the deficit through good defense and clutch shooting.

The effort included sharp shooting from long range by Josh Lagod and Chris Beekman. Lagod nailed 13 points, including a pair of three-pointers, and Beekman lobbed in two threes on his way to 10 points.

Branham's Lagod and Dan White, who added nine points, were picked to the all-tournament team. Rounding out the all-tourney squad were Ceylon Elgin-Taylor of Pioneer, Vince Bellotti of Los Gatos, Danny Wallace of Saratoga and Joel Wright of Live Oak.

In the contest for third place, the host Los Gatos Wildcats squared off against the Pioneer Mustangs. The Mustangs put together a combination of tough man-to-man defense that made it difficult for the Wildcats to put the ball in the hoop and a hot hand from three-point range that proved too much to overcome. Pioneer grabbed the third -lace trophy with a solid 60-47 victory.

In the early stages of the game both teams were slow to get rolling and struggled to get things clicking. Los Gatos had a strong and effective zone defense that the Mustangs could not solve. Pioneer countered by trying to push the ball up the court before the Wildcats could set up. The first quarter ended with Pioneer holding onto a slim 11-8 lead.

Pioneer suddenly found the range from outside and began to be deadly from behind the arc. Mark Bundlie led the charge with three buckets and Elgin-Taylor and Joe Montelongo added one each. By the time the buzzer sounded for the break, Pioneer had built a commanding 35-20 lead.

The second half action was balanced, but Los Gatos was not able to make up the ground lost in the second quarter barrage.

The Wildcats put forth a balanced offensive attack with no one player dominating the scoring. Bellotti and Michael Robards led the way with 11 points apiece. Jordan Vandenberg dumped in 10 and Ted Hull chipped in nine. Mike Brienzo and Chris Cuthbert tossed in a basket each while Al Palafox dropped a couple of free throws to complete the Wildcats scoring.

"It was nice to see us bounce back against a good Los Gatos team after the way we played against Leigh," said Pioneer coach Joe Berticevich. "It showed the character of our guys. We played with emotion tonight."

The consolation championship was won 63-55 by Live Oak in a hard-fought overtime victory over Saratoga.

Branham earned the right to play for the championship by getting past Los Gatos in the second round. The Bruins swished eight bombs from three-point range over the Wildcat defense, which proved too much firepower for Los Gatos to overcome. The Bruins built up a 39-18 halftime lead with their accurate shooting and never looked back, coming away with a 54-42 win.

The Wildcats put forth a valiant effort to fight back into the thick of things in the second half but just couldn't put together enough scoring runs. Robards led the charge with 12 points, Bellotti threw in eight and Hull added six. Tommy Morrissey fired in a three-pointer, Matt Martini and Vandenberg dropped in four points each, Cuthbert added three, and Danser chipped in two free throws.