The sixth annual 3 on 3 basketball tournament took place on Saturday, Feb. 24 in the CWU Recreation Center. Unlike previous years, the tournament is no longer associated with Hoops for Hospice.

According to Andre Dickerson, director of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, there were plans for another Hoops for Hospice event this year, but those plans ultimately fell through.

“The hospice organization (Hospice Friends) decided to move in a different direction with their fundraising efforts,” Dickerson said.

The tournament was originally created from a grant through the NCAA’s CHOICES grant, according to Doug Fulp, the assistant director of wellness at CWU. The late-night carnival in the spring is another event created from the grant.

“One of the components of that [the grant] was to create late-night programming opportunities for students that do not involve alcohol or other substances,” Fulp said.

In its first year, the tournament gathered roughly 50 participants, according to Jordan Bishop, the intramural and special events coordinator from the Recreation Center. The number of players has increased every year, and the organizers were expecting about 100 this year, according to Fulp. Teams consist mostly of students, but a handful of staff members play as well.

The tournament had about 100 participants as expected by organizers. According to Fulp, more spectators attended this year than any tournament before.

“A lot of [the teams] are actually teams that are playing basketball in the gym on a Saturday anyway, and they decide to sign up and stay with us for the evening,” Fulp added.

The first 100 people to sign up received a free drawstring bag with the tournament logo, which was designed by Wellness Center employee Meghan Johnson.

At the event, pizza was provided by Pizza Colin for both the players and any spectators in attendance. T-shirts and water bottles were awarded to teams, along with other prizes, according to Bishop.

“The top two teams get gift cards to the Wildcat Shop. First place teams will get $20 each and second place is $10 each,” Fulp said. The Recreation Center also included socks for the second place teams, Fulp said.

The tournament was split into three divisions: co-ed, recreation and competitive. The competitive division is for players who want to be the best, and the recreation and co-ed divisions are geared toward players wanting to have fun with friends.

“Co-ed is kind of our more inclusive category… just kind of another way to get everyone in there,” Bishop said.

In the first few tournaments, the number of teams signed up in the recreation division far outnumbered the amount in the other divisions. However, last year the teams in each division were more evenly distributed.

“I think we have a few more students who are taking basketball pretty seriously in the Rec Center,” Fulp said. “There are some bragging rights that go along with playing in the gym.”

Every team was guaranteed four games., with three of those in a round-robin format followed by one round of elimination bracket play.

The Wellness Center and the Recreation Center are looking into the possibility of another 3 on 3 tournament during the spring quarter, according to Fulp.