Defending champs, Fresno win titles
Size matters, apparently. Winston Brooks, whose Hoop Hearted team won Hoopfest’s Men’s Elite 6-feet and under division for an unprecedented fourth straight year, noticed.
Their title game against Arizona and One was supposed to follow the Women’s Elite title game at Center Court.
But because the schedule was running late, it was pushed back to Sunday’s finale to accommodate the Elite Men’s 6-feet and over regularly scheduled 5:45 p.m. game time.
Ex-Gonzaga University player Brooks was upset enough to consider not returning, but following Hoop Hearted’s 20-16 victory, spurred by game MVP and scoring machine Darrell Walker, talk eventually drifted to coming back and winning a fifth time.
In the 6-feet and over men’s game, Team Fresno won its first title in six tries, beating upstart Aero Bellingham Slam 20-13.
Men’s 6-feet and under: Brooks’ frustration wasn’t only about the big guys’ preferential game-time television treatment.
“We won the last three years and didn’t get one Center Court game until the championship,” he said. “The guys who win it should be the ones playing on the court here. I don’t know if I want to come back.”
Besides, he argued, the smaller guys’ game is more entertaining.
“We’re just a bunch of guards running around,” he said. “See us and that’s where the action is.”
The title game was his case in point and the efforts of Walker and Az and One’s Bryant Kennedy were exhibits one and two.
Kennedy, a former player at Eastern Michigan, scored 14 of Az and One’s 16 points on a variety of back-in moves and outside shots.
“He’s a six-foot guard playing like Shaquille O’Neal out there,” said Brooks. “And I thought I was Shaquille until I met him.”
But Hoop Hearted had more weapons, none more valuable than Walker. The son of former Lewis and Clark coach Larry Walker, with whom he co-coaches at Everett Community College, Walker came off the bench and hit back-to-back 2-point baskets for an 8-6 lead. He added six more scores, four late in the game during a 7-4 finish, on slashes to the basket. Ryan Hansen scored the winner.
“I got my style probably from my dad,” said Walker. “It’s run and gun, play hard or go home. Hustle and work hard, that’s all I do.”
He added that the team gets together just this one time each year. Brooks, Walker, Hansen and Eric Avery have been to the finals six straight times, winning the last four.
“Maybe we can come back and win it a fifth time,” said Brooks. “Then we’ll set the bar a little bit higher.”
Men’s 6-feet and over: Every tournament needs a Cinderella and Aero Bellingham Slam was it.
Made up of three players from Western Washington University and another from Evergreen, Aero scored the game’s final five points to upset Team Alabama 20-18 and reach the final.
But this was Team Fresno’s year after reaching the finals with a victory over Spokane’s A to Z Rental in the semis.
Troy Brown jump-started the team to a 5-2 lead and finished with six points. Gerard Leonard, a former University of San Diego player, and Tony Amundsen scored seven and five respectively. And Ty Amundsen kicked in with a 2-pointer and 19-12 lead.
“It’s a group effort,” Tony Amundsen said. “We’re so good at playing to our strengths.”
His brother added that, “We’ve been playing together for about 18 years now. We used to go to 8 or 10 tournaments a year, but now this is the one and only.”
What is the attraction of Spokane’s Hoopfest?
“Just look around,” he said. “The atmosphere, the quality of people who work it, the talent level, everything. It’s unbelievable.”
Leonard said that in his 20 years of playing in 3-on-3 tournaments, this is the best he’s been in.
As for Aero, despite their win over Team Alabama, one of the favorites, the players weren’t satisfied. Jacob and Jared Stevenson, Michael Parker and Brian (Yogi) Dennis all play for the Bellingham Slam’s American Basketball Association semi-pro team.
“We could have played a lot better I think,” said Jacob Stevenson. “But give credit to them. They played their game and we weren’t ready for it.”