Catalyst | Charity Hoop Tournament Recap




	What You Got? Brandon Yee of the Brown Dragons contemplates his next move during the championship game against Kao Saetern of Team Merced.

Elk Grove, CA – The Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation (SASF) was rocking on Saturday night as we had an exciting championship tournament filled with upsets, overtimes, and game winning shots. Over 100 people showed up for the championship tournament (players and supporters). 16 teams began, but only one was left standing. Ultimately it was Team Merced, the number one seed, who took home the title along with the grand prize Playstation 3.

It was an intense and competitive atmosphere from the start as each team was fighting for its life in the single elimination tournament. The first round went as expected with the higher seeded teams dominating the lower seeded teams except for a slight upset with ninth-ranked Take Over beating eighth-ranked Ashton Kimchi Express.

The second round featured two of the more exciting games of the tournament. On Court B, we had a major upset with seventh-ranked Brown Dragons beating second-ranked East West 22-21. East West was picked by many to go all the way. That was followed by an overtime victory by Merced against upset minded Take Over. In the overtime period, each team had its opportunity to win, but it was Merced who pulled out the victory with a 15 foot bank shot to win the sudden-death overtime.

In the championship game, top-ranked Merced found itself down for most of the game to the Brown Dragons. The hot shooting that Merced enjoyed throughout the tournament seemed to fade as the three member Dragons put the clamps down on defense. But in the end a timely deep ball and clutch free-throw shooting by Merced made the difference. The Dragons put down a two-pointer of their own in the final seconds, but it wasn’t enough as Merced won the championship game 18-16.

Congratulations team Merced!

Overall we had an excellent turn-out and a really good time. Our primary goal was to raise awareness and support for the good work being done for the community at My Sister’s House. Our stated goal was to raise $1000 for the shelter. I’m glad to report we were able to raise $1392. Good job everybody!

Thank you to all the teams that came out to support the community through this charity event. We hope you enjoyed the tournament!

We want to send a big THANK YOU out to the volunteers and donors that helped make this happen. It’s tough to name them all here, so sorry if I missed anyone, but we had a large group come from Riverside United Methodist Church to do the registration and score keeping (thanks Tracy!), My Sister’s House (Suzie, Kim, Jeanie, Nilda, Wayne, and ???), a group from Alpha Phi Omega (a co-ed service fraternity from UC Davis—thanks Mika, Helen, and Tuan!), the refs from SASF (Brandon, Robert, Dave (with son Brandon), Matt, Ryan, Rodney, and Nick), and the always reliable friends of Johnny, Helen, and Viv (Loan, Cliff, Dionne, Toulee, MCL, and more).

Donations came from SF Market (thanks Helen!), Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, Johnny Szeto, Tapioca Express (Freeport - Thanks Kim!), Cinemark Theaters (Greenback and I-80), Dragon Palace Restaurant, Fortune House Restaurant, Hollywood Hardware, Heavenly Yogurt, and Brick Oven Pizza. A big thanks to Cheryl Louie for putting up flyers and recruiting prizes. There were many others so again, I’m sorry if I missed you, but we really appreciate your help. We could not have done it without you!

And finally a special note of thanks to Brandon Yung and the fine folks at the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation. You helped provide such an awesome venue for the event and supported it with your hard work and dedication.

Still to come:	- Pictures from the tournament
	- Other details and stories (prize recap, knockout champ, others)
	- Bracket Challenge Recap
	- More!