MARYSVILLE In just its fourth year, the 3-on-3 basketball tournament hosted at Tulalip Casino Aug. 11-12 boasted the states second-largest turnout.
And that number 175 teams was about 25 teams behind last years numbers as tournament planners tried to accommodate the construction of the hotel, said tournament director Charlie Cobb.
Cobb estimated the turnout for the event to be at least several thousand people coming and going throughout the weekend to see the 19 different divisions of competition.
Several area teams placed first or second in their divisions, most notably Walkers Coffee Company took the mens gold division title for the third year in a row. The Marysville-based team included Everett Explosion players Darrell Walker and Corby Schuh as well as Everett Community College player Luke Ande.
The fifth-grade Tomcatz team of Ryan Alford, Cole Grinde, Tristan Perez and Michael Painter won their division.
The Marysville-area TCBA Elite squad of Troy Toler, Brian Duda and Matt McDougl defeated Armar rival Eagle Boys for the high school silver category championship. The runner-up team was made up of AJ Richardson, Taylor Petit, Blake Peterson and Andy Smith.
In girls competition, another Arlington team found themselves as bridesmaids in their division. The Team Fource of Krista Showalter, Lindsay Brown, Marissa Swegle and Taylor Graham finished second in the seventh-grade girls category.
The Marysville Ladyhawks Shelby Beyer, Andi Adams, Emily Enberg and Dacia Heckendorf took the crown in their ninth-grade division.
In middle school girls action, the Whoop Donkey Juniors saw a lot of the Brown All Stars before they were able to pull off their division championship.
Thats the third time we played them, said Juniors coach Rowdy Turner after his team won the championship game 10-8 in the tournament closer. Each time it went to overtime.
The Brown All Stars struck first in the teams rivalry, winning their Aug. 11 match-up. The Whoop Donkey Juniors won the second game, setting up the title game.
The All Stars shot well early on, pulling out of a 2-2 tie to lead. Their ball control helped them hold the lead much of the game. But despite an injury to one of their players, the Juniors rallied, bringing the game to a 6-6 tie with just minutes left.
The All Stars put up two more baskets, the second coming with an announcement of 30 seconds remaining, and it seemed they had put away the game. Then Jordyn Turner hit a basket from beyond the arc with less than five seconds left to tie it again and send the game to overtime.
Tournament rules dictated that overtime would end when one team led by two points and the Juniors took advantage of the momentum of their comeback in regulation, scoring their winning baskets on a free throw and a jumper from the left side of the basket.
The Juniors, who formed out of Triple Threat Basketball, have played together for about a year. Their coach attributed their success to their experience as a team.
Turner added that the adjustment from school basketball programs to 3-on-3 is a small one.
Its pretty much theyve just got to learn the cuts, he said. Its basketball, but its more brutal.
Despite the success of local girls and womens teams in the tournament, Cobb said hed like to see more competition in the female divisions.
My only disappointment was that we only had two womens teams that registered and to make a division you need four, he said. Thats my goal for next year, that we take care of our lady hoopsters.