Local girls place highly at Tulalip 3-on-3

MARYSVILLE While still western Washington's largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament, the Tulalip 3-on-3 tourney had a visibly smaller turnout in its 2008 outing.

Whether attributable to the turnout or just a couple of cold shooting spells, several bracket championship games were won by uneven margins in the contest's second day, Aug. 10.

In another positive sign for the future of Arlington basketball, both eighth- and ninth-grade girls teams advanced to their bracket's championship game. The eighth-grade team of Lindsay Brown, Taylor Graham, Krista Showalter and Marissa Swegle dubbed Team 4ource defeated the Lady Blues 16-10 to win their bracket and a prize package of championship medals and t-shirts.

The ninth-graders, a quartet of girls from Arlington's standout AAU team, faced the Rock Stars in their grade-level championship. The A-Town Ballers team of Megan Abdo, Katie Ferro, Josie Foster and Stefanie Schmuck came into the championship game undefeated, after beating the Rock Stars in an earlier meeting. The Rock Stars and Arlington girls found each other familiar rivals however the Stars being comprised of AAU-season rivals Seattle Flight from the Issaquah area and the Rock Stars overcame their earlier loss to win the first round.

Although Arlington could have won the championship outright with a win in the Aug. 10 meeting, a loss meant that the girls rematched for a second championship game. The Rock Stars won again, relegating the A-Town girls to runners up.

The ninth-grade bracket contained a couple of other AAU rivals, said girls' coach Mike Hawthorne.

"The Rattlesnakes were from AAU, and we crushed Snohomish," he added.

In the 10th-grade girls division, a team of Marysville girls who made a splash on the basketball court as freshmen came together for a run at the sophomore-division crown. Taking their school mascot for a team name, Tomahawks Andi Adams, Kaitlyn Enberg, Dacia Heckendorf and Morgan Martinis made it all the way to their division championship as well. However, the girls were stifled by the defense of their rivals the B-Ballers and suffered bad luck in their shooting, scoring just three points against the Ballers under the tournament's first-to-16-points format.

According to event hosts, the Tomahawks were defending their title as ninth-grade champions from the 2007 tournament.

Proceeds from the event benefitted Snohomish County Boys and Girls Club.

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