Seventeen teams with more than 80 players hit the basketball courts at the Splash Basketball 3-on-3 tournament Saturday afternoon at the Pacific Islands Club.

The event sponsored by iFit Guam Sports Center, PIC and the Guam Basketball Confederation is part of a long list of programs that the GBC is planning to utilize to develop Guam basketball, said E.J. Calvo, overall men’s national team program director.

“Our No. 1 goal is to promote the game of 3-on-3 with different age levels. It’s growing in popularity worldwide and our Guam women’s national team program has seen some success, because they’ve had a lot of opportunity to play 3-on-3 games,” said Calvo, “This is the beginning of the men’s. We hope to see more events and tournaments for both the men and women and boys and girls divisions.”

“Here, we have three really competitive divisions from 12-13 years old up to the best players on Guam in the men’s division and I think it’s just going to grow.”

Ranking

According to Jon Lujan, the tournament is a FIBA-endorsed and -sanctioned tournament and all players have a chance to check their ranking and how many points they’ve earned worldwide if they go to http://www.3x3planet.com/.

“They can create their own accounts, ... it’s like a basketball Facebook,” Lujan said. “You can actually see all the 3-on-3 events around the world.”

One of the featured games was between the Tooth Fairies and the Cowboy Ninja teams. The Tooth Fairies had Merwin Martin and Guam National team players Earvin Jose, Seve Susuico and James Stake, while Cowboy Ninja had national team player Joe Blas and high-flyers Ollie Bradley and Ledget Glover.

Blas scored a game-high five points, while frontcourt player Bradley dropped four to lead Cowboy Ninja to a 12-9 victory over the Tooth Fairies. Earvin Jose scored four points on two buckets from beyond the arc for Cowboy Ninja.

In 3-on-3 basketball, a team gets two points for shots made beyond the arc, and one point for shots inside the arc, including free throws.

It was the Tooth Fairies who drew first blood when Jose knocked down his first long-range bomb with just five ticks off the clock, but Blas came back with two quick buckets under the rim and Glover hit a free throw to give Cowboy Ninja a 3-2 lead. Stake had an opportunity to give his team the lead, but a missed shot combined with big man Susuico out on an injury started a slump for the team.

Cowboy Ninja took advantage of Susuico’s injury and attacked the frontcourt. As a result, Bradley scored five out of six of his team’s next points on the way to a 9-4 lead with 4 minutes and 45 seconds left on the clock.

After a timeout, Susuico re-entered the game and was able to help the team to a 5-3 run, but it wasn’t enough as time ran out on the Tooth Fairies.

Games continue today with playoffs starting at 3 p.m. and championship games following at 3:30 p.m., according to Lujan.

Written By: Al Garrido

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