Rincon/University held off a furious comeback from Pueblo to win the championship of the Fat Lever/Santa Cruz Shootout 63-58 Friday afternoon at Pueblo High School.

Rincon/UHS had a comfortable lead for most of the game but Jacob Maya scored with 8:16 left in the game to cut the Ranger lead down to 47-42. Rincon/UHS responded with a 10-2 run to push the lead back to 57-44, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Dieumerci Byiringiro with 4:15 left.

Pueblo junior Isaiah Hill scored 14 of his game-high 27 points from there to make things interesting with nine of those points coming off of long-range shots but a couple of free throws Byiringiro helped stop the run. Byiringiro and Hill were named co-MVPs of the tournament.

Byiringiro scored 14 for Rincon/UHS, Zaire Hays scored 17 and Malcolm Barrios added nine points. Hill had his 27 for Pueblo and Jacob Maya added 18.

Pueblo will open up 4A Kino Region play on Thursday, Jan. 5 at home and Rincon/UHS will host Cienega on Jan. 10. The initial AIA power-rankings are set be released on Thursday.

Sunnyside beat Kofa 51-46 in overtime to win the third place game. Michael Quiroga scored 16 to lead all scorers and Giovanni Tchitou added 10. Joaquin Anaya led Kofa with 12 points, Francisco Jimenez scored 11 and Elijah Braveheart had 10.

NOTE: At one time, the Santa Cruz Shootout featured 28 boys and girls teams from Arizona, California, Washington and Canada. The gym Cholla High School was called into duty due to the overflow number of teams. The tournament ran from about 1993 to 2008. This year, former Pueblo, ASU and NBA standout Fat Lever was on hand to help bring the tournament back and he provided memorabilia to award to the tournament MVPs.