LA JOYA — Kansas sophomore forward KJ Adams helped the No. 6 Jayhawks defeat the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils on Tuesday on ESPN.
Three years ago around this time, he was throwing down dunks inside the La Joya High School gymnasium, leading Austin Westlake to a win in La Joya Pack’s South Texas Shootout basketball tournament, which has grown into one of the top tourneys across South Texas during non-conference play.
The fourth annual La Joya Pack’s South Texas Shootout, beginning today and running through Saturday, features 32 teams from across the state competing at La Joya High School, La Joya Palmview, La Joya STEM ECHS and Zavala Middle School.
“The support from the administration has been great. The first thing we talked about with our coaches was, ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right.,’” La Joya High head basketball coach Eric Montalvo said. “We’re going to be persistent and try to get teams from out of town to come down for a couple of reasons. One reason was we want to make sure we get good competition for our players here in La Joya and the local teams from the Valley. At the same time, it’s to show our kids that we can compete at that level. That’s one of the goals we’ve had every year, that’s what we continue to do and hopefully we can keep going in the right direction.”
This year’s pool includes teams from Corpus Christi, Eagle Pass, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio and San Marcos among others.
Valley teams competing in this year’s South Texas Shootout include Brownsville Hanna, Edcouch-Elsa, Edinburg North, Edinburg Vela, Harlingen High, Harlingen South, McAllen High, PSJA High, Sharyland, High, Sharyland Pioneer, Weslaco High and Weslaco East, in addition to host teams La Joya High, La Joya Palmview and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln.
One of the top players in this year’s tournament is La Joya High’s own Ethan Moya.
A four-year letterman, Moya has led the Coyotes to a 2-0 start this season and is averaging 21.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, four assists, 2.5 steals and two blocks per game.
He’s averaged 14.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.3 blocks during his first three seasons with the Coyotes.
Now, he’s set to lead La Joya into the South Texas Shootout. The Coyotes are scheduled to open pool play against Eagle Pass at 9 a.m. and Buda Hays at 6 p.m. at La Joya High.
“We got Ethan here when he was a freshman, and he’s been a four-year starter for us and we’ve seen his growth every year. It just speaks volumes about who he is as a person and how he’s been raised by his parents,” Montalvo said of Moya. “His main thing has always been working hard and being committed to the sport, and that’s what he’s done. On the court, he’s our leader. He understands that they’re going to come after him as far as defenses are concerned. He understands that, he’s ready to take that challenge and he’s worked hard. He’s the kid that everyone wants to coach. He’s your best player, but you can coach him hard and he’s going to respond, and he’s going to work hard. He’s a perfect example of what we want for every kid to be like here in our program.”
The complete tournament schedule can be found at RGVSports.com. The post will be updated throughout the day with tournament scores from across the RGV.