A Lamorinda Youth Commission 3-on-3 basketball tournament was held at the Lafayette Community center this past weekend. The tournament featured nearly 25 players, from all three local high schools as well as De La Salle, playing on 8 different teams. The tournament ran from 3:00 to 6:00 on Saturday afternoon.
The Lamorinda Youth Commission is a group of teens from Lafayette that strive to host fun, clean, and substance free events for the youth of the area. Campolindo senior Eric King, a member of the commission, was in charge of setting up and running the tournament. “The LYC’s goal is to put on fun events for teens around Lamorinda, and with the March Madness tournament coming up, we thought it would be a fun idea to host a little tournament of our own,” King said.
A team of Campolindo students, consisting of Isaac Christian, Andrew Cassidy, and Andrew Zolintakis, all of whom are sophomores, won the double elimination, bracket-style tournament. With games played to 21, the team breezed through their first few rounds. “We were on a roll and just really had it going,” Zolintakis said.
However, the Campolindo sophomores ran into a tough De La Salle team in the final matchup of the day. The game was close, with the two teams trading off baskets all the way down to the end. However, the Campolindo team eventually pulled away, with Cassidy laying in a game clinching free throw to give his team the victory. “They were good and played hard all day,” Cassidy said. “But some solid play calling and teamwork was key to our victory,” he concluded.
This is Christian’s second year in a row on a winning team, after a different team he played on last year was victorious in the tournament. “The tournament was a blast this year,” Christian said following his victory. “Everyone had a great time and Eric and the LYC did an incredible job with the event, and we can’t wait until next year,” he continued.
This tournament is the first of two 3 v. 3 tourneys and the second is being put on by Leadership during the week of March 19-23.