There may not be a better high school basketball gathering in the nation than the Shop 'n Save/KMOX Shootout in St. Louis. Over the last 24 years, the Shootout has featured 12 NBA-All-Stars, 16 national players of the year, 71 NBA draft picks, and ten teams that have been declared either the national high school champion or runner up by USA Today. The event really took off in 1994 when Chicago Farragut and Kevin Garnett drew eight NBA scouts to the Gateway City. Since then, Vince Carter, Stephon Marbury, Antoine Walker and Amare Stoudemire are among the high school stars to play in the event.

PowerMizzou.com has watched every boys game during the 2004 Shootout at the Savvis Center. Following is an in-depth notebook from every contest.

The first game featured University of Missouri signee Matt Lawrence and his teammate Landon Shipley, who is headed to Austin Peay from Lafayette. On the other side was Madison standout Wesley Matthews, Jr.

The first half belonged to Matthews and Madison. The Marquette signee, and son of former NBA star Wes Matthews, scored a dozen first-half points as his team raced to a 28-16 lead at the break.

However, Lawrence, Shipley and the Lancers weren't done. A 14-0 run, capped by a Lawrence three-pointer from the left wing, helped get the Lancers back within two points early in the fourth quarter.

“I know our hearts and our passion rose to the top (in the second half),” said Lafayette head coach Dave Porter.

Matthews, who was held to just two second-half points, fouled out of a very physical ballgame with 2:21 remaining and Memorial up two points. Up to that point, Matthews had drawn Lawrence on the defensive end for nearly the entire game.

“In the first half, he was on me the whole time and it was really tough to get the ball and get open, let alone get around him,” Lawrence said of Matthews. “He's a great defender and it seemed like he could get his shot anytime he wanted to...When he fouled out, the first thing I told my team was, 'This is our time. This is our time to come back.'”

Lafayette did come back, but couldn't quite finish the job. After getting within two, the Lancers fell by a final of 45-40 as Madison closed things out from the line.

The respect went both ways in this matchup.

“I didn't know anything about him except I saw on the website he was going to Missouri,” Matthews said of the 6-foot-6 Lawrence. “He's a big kid, he's bigger than I thought he was. I just tried to play hard. I didn't know much about him so I just played him honest. I knew he could shoot, so I tried to make him go by me.”

Matthews scored 14 in the game and hit two-of-three three pointers. Lawrence led all scorers with 17 points, but was just 6-for-16 from the field. Despite a very physical game, both teams came away with a measure of respect for the other.

“Their coach (Steve Collins) I thought, in a very classy gesture, told me at the end of the game, and I believe him, I don't think he was just trying to humor me,” Porter said, “But he said that's the best game anybody's played against them in two years.”

Another name to keep an eye on in the future is Keaton Nankivil. A 6-foot-10 sophomore, Nankivil is already a two-year starter for the Spartans. He scored eight points and made all four shots he took. Nankivil added nine rebounds and a block.

Paced by a game-high 15 points from standout junior Jon Scheyer Glenbrook handled the Jennings Warriors with ease, coming up with a 53-35 win in the Shootout's second game.

Scheyer led in points, but he didn't have much of a night shooting the ball. He was just 5-for-17 from the field, 1-for-8 from three-point range.

“This is one of the worst shooting percentage I've ever had,” Scheyer said. “The background is a lot different so that effects your shooting. My shot wasn't falling today, but no excuses.”

Even more troubling to Scheyer and coach David Weber was his 5-for-10 perfromance from the free throw line.

“I don't think Jon's ever going to shoot free throws like that again,” Weber said. “He's the best free throw shooter in Illinois and maybe in the country. That's not going to happen again.”

Still, Scheyer got what he came to St. Louis for.

“I'm just happy we got a win,” he said. “We came here to win and that's the bottom line. I'm happy. I couldn't be happier even though my shot wasn't falling and I wish I would have played a little better.”

On the recruiting front, the shooting guard has what he called his “short list” down to seven schools: Duke, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Arizona, Cal, Kansas, and Illinois. He then admitted maybe it's not such a short list.

“I'm about to cut it down to about three or four,” Scheyer said. “I have an idea in my head right now. When you've got so many schools involved, it gets to be too much sometimes.”

Scheyer didn't want to name any of the schools that might make the cut, but admitted he gets plenty of pressure to play for the home state Fighting Illini.

“Illinois is proud of Illinois,” he said. “There's like 30 kids going to Illinois from my school. People are telling me stuff every day, but in the end, I'm going to make the decision by myself.”

Of course, it doesn't hurt that his coach is the younger brother of Illinois head coach Bruce Weber.

Northbrook teammate Sean Wallis tossed in 12 points as well. Wallis is being recruited by some Ivy League schools, a testament not only to his court game, but his 33 on the ACT.

Junior Sanijay Watts led Jennings with 13 points and Nebraska signee Matthew Akins had eight poinnts, four rebounds and two blocks.

Akins is very athletic and versatile for a 6-foot-9 man. He created his own shot off the dribble a few times and even led and finished a fast break for the Warriors.

“I just want to get better everywhere, in the post, outside, rebounding, blocked shots, passing the ball to my teammates,” Akins said.

He also wants to get better in the classroom so he can go to Nebraska next season.

“Right now, I'm still committed, but trying to get my test score straightened out so I can go there,” he said. “If I don't go there, I'll probably go to junior college at Wabash and transfer in two years so I can go there.”

The third game of the day featured one of the more unknown big names in the junior class. Van-Far junior Mike Smith led all scorers with 16 points, but the Indians fell short, 47-39, against Bethalto Civic Memorial.

It was the first loss in 30 games for the Indians. The last loss came 364 days ago, on December 10th, 2003.

“I told them great teams will bounce back from this,” said Van-Far coach Brian Meny. “You can't take away the state championship and you can't take away the 27-game win streak last year.”

Civic Memorial is a junior-dominated team which was led by 16 points from Stephen Jones. Jones and Dustin Maguire both played well for the Eagles, who won 25 games a season ago and came out on top in the Mississippi Valley Conference.

“I thought they did a great job on Dustin on defense and kept a body on him all the time,” said Civic Memorial head coach Ty Laux. “He kept his head and had a great floor game. The shots didn't fall for him like they usually do, but overall, he had a great game.”

Smith showed some prowess both inside and out despite being double and triple-teamed much of the evening. He spent a lot of the night matched up with Jones, his AAU teammate over the summer with the St. Louis Eagles.

“Stephen is a great player and he played great defense on me,” Smith said.

After some foul trouble, Meny was forced to move the 6-6 Smith, his best inside player, to the point.

“When we had to move Mike to the point, he can handle that spot, but it really took something away from what we were trying to do on offense,” Meny said.

Smith is getting mail from Missouri, Ball State, Southwest Missouri State and some smaller schools, but he said he hasn't really begun to narrow down the recruiting process too much.

“No, I'm just concentrating on trying to win games,” Smith said.

No doubt who the star of this one is. Kansas commit Julian Wright is one of the top players in the nation.

“I watched him Saturday down in Kentucky,” said Webster head coach Jay Blossom. “I thought he was the best non-post player I've seen in the country.”

Wright had 16 points in a 55-41 Viking win, but he didn't put on the show some fans may have expected when they picked up their Shootout program and saw the future Jayhawk on the cover.

“I wouldn't give it a letter grade or anything,” Wright said when asked to assess his performance. “I'm just working hard to take better shots, get everybody involved. I'm trying to be more aggressive. I want to be smarter, but still aggressive.”

Still, Wright impressed the opposition with the way he played in putting up 16 points, seven rebounds, three blocks, three assists and four steals.

“Julian Wright, he plays to win,” said Blossom. “I mean, he's trying to get guys involved and he's going to make plays for them to win games, within a team structure. That's what they did against Oak Hill and I was really impressed with the way they play together.”

Plenty of college and NBA scouts were in the stands, many of them in St. Louis to watch the Homewood-Flossmoore star.

“I'm totally in the game once I get out there,” Wright said. “When we go to the bench and we're up 15 or whatever, it's not like I'm looking up in the stands to see who's here.”

This is not exactly a slouch that the Vikings dominated. Webster Groves has won three consecutive conference titles. Among the stars for the Statesmen are Suburban South Conference player of the year Eric Jones, who signed with Southeast Missouri State.

Jones was particularly impressive, holding Wright out of the scoring column for much of the time with a solid defensive effort.

“I thought he (Jones) did a really, really good job, that's what I told him afterwards,” said Blossom. “I think Eric more than held his own.”

“It was pretty tough with his length,” said Jones. “But I think I did a pretty good job.”

In addition to Jones, Webster has junior forward Adrian Clayborn who is the focal point of the offense. Clayborn had six points, but his future is on the gridiron. He already has a football offer from the University of Missouri.