This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Call it the one that got away. Utah Pump-N-Run's brilliant run at the adidas Super 64 summer basketball tournament in Las Vegas ended Tuesday morning, as the collection of Utah's top high school and college-bound players fell 65-57 to a team known as the Texas Assault. As a result, Texas Assault plays in Tuesday night's nationally televised (CBS C) 6 p.m. MDT championship game against Dream Vision of Southern California, while UPNR licks its wounds, wonders what might have been, and gets ready for the next tournament, which begins Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif. "We could have won this thing," said UPNR's best player, West Jordan High senior-to-be Jordan Loveridge. He'd get no argument here. UPNR was in no way out-talented by the team from Texas; things just unraveled at the end for the Utahns, especially after Loveridge went to the bench with his fifth and sixth fouls. Yes, I made it to Vegas and covered the game. Here's my report for the newspaper. I'm gonna sound like a homer for writing this, but what the heck: Things got kind of fishy at the end of the game. The technical on Loveridge and a subsequent technical on Murray graduate David Collette were weak calls. Texas made eight points on free throws after the fouls and subsequent technicals were called.——————————————— Mentioned in the game story and via Twitter that Loveridge had a phenomenal game (except for the final five minutes that he watched from the bench) to cap a phenomenal tournament. The 6-foot-6 star was named Maxpreps.com's star of the tournament. And for good reason. Loveridge told me after the game he has six scholarship offers, listing BYU, Utah, Utah State, Hawaii, Weber State and Colorado State. There are reports on Twitter that he picked up a seventh, from Santa Clara, later today. "I think I will pick up a few more [offers]," Loveridge said. "I am not sure how many." I asked Loveridge if he has a favorite right now. "Not really," he said. "I'm still wide open." He said UPNR is eager to go to Southern California for the Best of Summer tournament in Anaheim and other parts of Orange County. They want to show that the 7-1 run they went on the last five days was no fluke. "Teams look at the Utah on the front of our jersey, and they come out and laugh at us. They think it is going to be an easy game," he said. "We just come out and work hard. They are just messing around in warmups, and we are going hard in warmups, breaking a sweat. ... I think we are as good as any team here, and we showed that. We think we can beat any team out here. ... Now we are going to the Best of Summer tournament in Anaheim. I think we should get more respect there. If we don't, the same thing will happen. We will surprise some people."——————————- Todd Phillips, the UPNR coach who recently became head coach at SLCC, said every one of his team's players showed well in Vegas and improved his stock with recruiters. American Fork's Marcel Davis and Quincy Bair have committed to Utah State and will sign with the Aggies in November. Murray's David Collette, one of three high school graduates on the team, has signed an academic scholarship with USU and is expected to redshirt this coming season before a church mission. Timpanogos' Ryan Van Pelt has signed an academic scholarship with Weber State. The third graduate, Juan Diego's Logan Mortensen, will attend St. John's-Northwestern Prep School. Other players included West Jordan's Jaden Jackson (a transfer from Skyline) and Jordan Pryor, a sharpshooting guard who was an amazing 15 of 18 from three-point range in the tourney before Tuesday's semifinal. He was 1 of 3 on Tuesday. Granger High's Isaiah Tademy also contributed. "It has been great for the kids. They played really well. Some people think they overachieved, but this team is really talented," Phillips said. "We've got a lot of Division I kids on this team, kids going to Utah State, or maybe BYU and Utah. We have a lot of really good shooters. We beat an Atlanta Celtics team, which we have never beat. They are probably the best program in the country. But other than that, the teams we matched up against didn't have more talent than us. It's been a fun ride."——————————— UPNR coaches were obviously miffed at the way the game was officiated in the final five minutes, but steered clear of outright criticism. The technical on Loveridge "was a big one," Phillips said. "I think we could have rebounded from that and won without him. Obviously, he was carrying the load. But the deficit got to six, and then all of a sudden it was eight, and then we were in trouble. So we never quite got our composure back after that." Phillips on whether Texas' players flopped to get the techs called on Loveridge and Collette: "I understand them calling it. The ref is trying to protect the kid. We got to be better and smarter in that area. It is a big game, and emotions get involved." — By Jay Drew