More than 30 students participated in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament Oct. 7 to raise money for Ithaca College’s branch of Colleges Against Cancer and the men’s and women’s club basketball teams.
Torie Peters, senior and president of the women’s club basketball team, said neither basketball team receives enough money through the Office of Recreational Sports to travel to every game. This inspired the teams to create the tournament, which they named “Bomber Bash.”
“Club sports has to pay for basically everything that they do,” she said. “It will go towards our traveling when we play games; it will go towards our hotels. Basically, traveling, when we play, where we play. Also, clothing and warm-ups, sometimes.”
The basketball teams normally do not have joint fundraisers because the two club teams are in different leagues.
“The men’s team doesn’t really schedule their games the same way we do,” Peters said. “We don’t really have a lot in common in terms of who we are playing, when we are playing and where we are playing.”
This year, the club basketball teams are more organized than they had been in previous years, Peters said. This allowed the two teams to come together.
Alex Drescher, senior and vice president of the men’s club basketball team, said that when the two executive boards came together to start planning,they also wanted to give to charity.
They then received an email from Colleges Against Cancer.
Sophomore Jack Von Kannon, a member of Colleges Against Cancer who helped put the event together, said that the organization reached out to organizations around campus because they are hoping to partner with more non–cancer related organizations this year.
The teams then decided to partner with Colleges Against Cancer.
“We were looking to give to a good charity, and obviously, breast cancer in the month of October is a good choice because it is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” Drescher said.
To play in the tournament, teams of three to five people had to pay a combined $20.
“We figured, since it was three to five people, that that was enough and not too crazy of a price range, but also enough that we are making a profit and able to give it to charity,” Drescher said.
The men’s rugby team sponsored T-shirts for the tournament that said “First Annual Bomber Bash” and had a pink ribbon on the back. They were sold for $5 at the tournament. Colleges Against Cancer had a T-shirt raffle, and the basketball team also sold food and drinks.
Liz Denbigh, senior and treasurer of the women’s club basketball team, said the event raised $300 and said the money has not been split up yet. Colleges Against Cancer will be receiving the majority of the money, Denbigh said, and the rest of the money will be split 50–50 between the basketball teams.
Eleven teams participated in the half-court tournament, with each game consisting of two eight–minute halves.
“Three-on-three is harder to play full–court than it is half–court,” Peters said. “Three-on-three is more fun, and games go quicker and smoother.”
The championship came down to the wire.
Team E, made up of graduate student Hai Lin, seniors Tyler Denn-Thiele, Andrew Bishop and junior Alex Arika, defeated Team D, consisting of seniors Kris Bosela and Taehoon Kim and juniors Carter Bushway and Nicholas Davis, during the third round. This sent Team D to the loser’s bracket, where they won every game.
Team E remained undefeated until they reached the championship round.
In the first championship game, Team D defeated Team E 45–36. With 4:24 left in the second half, Team E was able to cut the lead to nine points but was unable to hang on. This forced a second game to take place.
In game two, Team E started strong with a 16–9 lead. With three minutes left to go in the first half, Team D was able to make a comeback and tie the game at 16. The first half ended with Team D leading 21–18. In the second half, with just under five minutes left to play, Team E took a two–point lead, making the score 29–27. Team D was unable to come back, allowing Team E to secure the win 45–32.
Both teams and players in the tournament said they hope this tournament will continue next year.
“It was a bigger turnout than I expected,” Lin said. “It is a good way for different people of the campus community to come together and play basketball. Hopefully, we can do this more next year.”
