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.

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

At the end of three quarters, Live Oak had a 42-34 lead and seemed to be in control. But the Falcons started to battle back. The charge was led by Wallace, with 22 points from down low, and Irving Chien, with 20 from the outside.

Wallace's biggest bucket came with 1.6 seconds left in regulation. On an inbounds play under the basket, Wallace went high to grab the lob pass, landed, and quickly put a shot up off the board that dropped in as the buzzer sounded, sending the game into overtime.

Saratoga briefly took a lead in overtime when Nima Rad (seven points for the game) popped a three-pointer from way outside. Unfortunately, the Falcons got cold and could not find the range in the rest of the overtime and Live Oak made good on 12 of 13 free throws to pull out the win.

Saratoga ran into a tough first round match against Branham. The height of the Bruins was too much for the Falcons, and Branham was able to pound out a 50-37 win that sent the Falcons into the consolation bracket and the Bruins into the championship round.

The Falcons had a balanced offensive attack with Ben Coggins (nine points), Chien (eight), Wallace (seven) and Rad (six).

In second round action, the Falcons found themselves in a rematch with Willow Glen, who they had met the week before in the Westmont Tournament. The Falcons prevailed once again, beating Rams 59-53. Rad was red hot from long range and popped in five three-pointers to lead the Falcons with 17 points. Wallace and Chien added 13 each. Aron Mitsunaga supported with five points, Coggins had four, Chris Etterman three and Kenny Baba and Barry Ju one each.