Sports

St. Thomas forward Jake Pike (21) dribbles the ball during a game last season. Pike and the Eagles swept through holiday tournament play last week to stay undefeated on the early season.

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Local boys’ hoops squads strong at holiday tournaments

By Landan Kuhlmann

landan@theleadernews.com

While many were off enjoying the Thanksgiving tournament, several of the area’s high school boys’ basketball teams were putting in solid work at holiday tournaments around the region and country.

On the private school side, the St. Thomas Eagles went 3-0 at the OTR Thanksgiving Classic last week, taking down Pasadena Memorial 68-42 on Nov. 23 and Houston Heights 4537 on Nov. 25 before dropping Dallas Spruce 60-44 on Saturday. Ja’Mar Franklin had 21 points for the Eagles (6-0) against Spruce, while Jake Pike had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds against Pasadena Memorial.

St. Thomas was set to be back in action Tuesday night against Grace Christian Academy at 7 p.m.

Fresh off an appearance in the TAPPS Class 3A state title game last year, the Lutheran North Academy Lions are off to a strong start once again, going 3-1 in tournament play. The Lions (7-2) dropped a 7065 to Fort Worth Christian on Nov. 21 before defeating San Juan Diego Catholic (59-50) later that day and sweeping two games against Lake Country Christian (65-57) and St. Joseph Academy (65-57) on Nov. 22. The Lions also lost 74-40 against Fort Bend Austin on Nov. 25.

Elsewhere in the private school ranks, the St. Pius X Panthers dropped all three games at the OTR Thanksgiving Class last week, losing 60-51 to Houston Westfield on Nov. 22 before dropping a 51-41 decision to Nimitz and losing 62-55 against St. Thomas Episcopal on Saturday.

Jordan Johnson had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Panthers (1-8) against Nimitz, then added 18 points and seven rebounds against St. Thomas Episcopal. Grant Shupak also had a strong game against St. Thomas Episcopal, scoring 18 points and grabbing 14 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Kevin Range had 16 points against Westfield on Nov. 22.

On the public school circuit, the Booker T. Washington Eagles split a pair of games at the Kevin Brown Tournament of Champions on Nov. 23-24. The Eagles (2-2) beat Illinois Yorkville Christian 94-54 on Nov. 23 before losing 110-81 against Florida Winter Haven. Star forward Kenneth Lewis, who has verbally committed to Prairie View A&M, had one of the tournament’s standout performances with a tournament-record 51 points in the win over Yorkville Christian on Nov. 23 – breaking the previous record of 50 points from Zion Williamson, according to tournament officials. The Waltrip Rams dropped a pair of games last week, losing 58-38 against College Station on Nov. 21 and 71-29 against South Houston on Nov. 22 to drop to 1-5 on the season.

Scarborough dropped to 0-4 on the early season following a 78-29 loss to Milby ahead of Monday’s District 21-4A opener against Worthing on Monday.

Girls

It was a quiet week for many of the area’s local girls’ basketball teams. The Booker T. Washington Lady Eagles dropped to 1-7 on the season following a 58-12 loss against Sweeny on Nov. 21, and were set to be back in action Tuesday night against St. Pius X.

The Waltrip Lady Rams were off last week, but sit at 4-0 overall and 2-0 in District 9-5A entering Monday night’s clash with Wisdom.

Heights’ Lady Bulldogs were also idle last week, and were looking to extend a four-game winning streak in Tuesday night’s scheduled matchup.

In the private school ranks, the Lutheran North Academy Lady Lions had their two-game winning streak snapped with an 85-34 loss to Brookshire Royal on Saturday. The Lady Lions (3-5), were set to clash with The Village School Tuesday night.

St. Pius X, meanwhile, was 1-7 entering Tuesday’s game against Booker T. Washington.

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DOES A LIVING TRUST TRUMP A POWER OF ATTORNEY?

No. A Living Trust does not replace a Power of Attorney, and ideally, you should have both. When many people think about estate planning, they think of Living Trusts as tools to avoid probate and Powers of Attorney to plan for incapacity. In reality, though, the Living Trust is an even better tool for incapacity planning than a Power of Attorney.

A Power of Attorney is a document that grants another trusted person whether it be a spouse, adult child, sibling, or friend, the ability to transact business on another’s behalf while alive. (Side note: a Power of Attorney becomes ineffective the moment the person who executed it dies). And while even the most well-drafted Powers of Attorney can clearly grant the right person the power to do what is necessary to keep their financial life moving, at its most basic level, a Power of Attorney is merely an invitation for another person (or institution) to accept that a designated agent has the right to sign for the principal. Like any invitation, this can be rejected for no good reason. Perhaps the institution fears liability for accepting the Power of Attorney because it is too old or “stale,” or maybe the title company or brokerage firm would have preferred their own institutional power of attorney form. Regardless of the reasons, rejection of a Power of Attorney means your well-drafted plan isn’t working when it needs to do so. New laws are beginning to pop up to penalize financial institutions who wrongly refuse a Power of Attorney, but it can sometimes be costly and time-consuming to bring them to Court to enforce it.

By contrast, if a person places their assets, such as a home or brokerage account, into the name of a Living Trust, they can designate a Successor Trustee to transact on behalf of that Trust. Notably, that Successor Trustee can act if the primary Trustee is unable to do so because they are incapacitated or because they have passed away. For example, if a person has a stroke and can’t sign to sell their house, a title company would automatically allow the Successor Trustee to sign if the Trust owned the house. No invitation necessary.

Even with a Living Trust, however, any complete estate plan should still contain a Power of Attorney. In case something was not transferred to the Trust, the Power of Attorney could prove helpful for managing that asset. Jennifer Solak, Attorney

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The information in this column, which was sponsored by Solak Legal as part of The Leader Expert Series, is intended to provide a general understanding of the law and not legal advice. Readers with legal questions should consult attorneys for advice on their particular circumstances. Jennifer Solak provides legal advice for families and businesses and may be contacted at jennifer@solaklegal.com or 713-588-5744