Incoming Warrenton junior Caleb Strauss finished his summer basketball slate last weekend at the Adidas Uprising Summer Championships AAU Tournament in Las Vegas.

Strauss, listed at 6-foot-8, played with the St. Louis Gateway Basketball Club over the summer.

The tournament, which featured a number of highly touted recruits in the Classes of 2017 and 2018, began July 21 with pool play and guaranteed each team at least three games.

Strauss and his teammates advanced out of pool play with three wins.

“We played one good team in pool play and blew everyone else out,” Strauss said. “But in bracket play, we played all pretty good Adidas teams.”

Gateway fended off Team Bradley Northwest Panthers in the first round of bracket play, 64-52.

Strauss finished 1-for-3 with two rebounds in the win.

“After the pool play you started getting the bigger and tougher guys out there that would really push you around,” Strauss said. “At one point I went in there and there was a kid that was about 6-foot-6, 250 pounds. He kind of worked me a little bit, and I knew I couldn’t let him do that.”

Gateway was eliminated by Compton Magic in the Sweet 16, 67-44.

“It was an amazing summer, and I think it was a lot better than the experience I had last summer,” said Strauss, who played for the St. Louis Eagles program last year. “Gateway really made me feel at home. I fit in with the guys right away and we did a lot better this year. Our goal was to get better by the end of the summer, and we accomplished that. We were definitely playing our best ball late.”

Strauss said he believes the higher competition will only help him prepare for the high school basketball season.

“Having higher level competition every weekend during the summer really pushes you to get better before the high school season starts,” he said. “That will definitely help this year.”

As a sophomore, Strauss tied for a team-high 10 points per game while leading the Warriors with 14.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per outing.

This season, he hopes to have added another weapon to his offensive arsenal.

“I wanted to work on my outside game and become more of a dual-threat player,” he said. “Being 6-foot-8 in Warrenton is big. But when you play against these bigger schools, everyone is huge so you have to work on everything else.”