Hoopfest elite: Hub Northwest wins 6th straight title, Empire Fitness takes home women’s crown

Hub Northwest, winners of five straight men’s 6-foot and over titles coming into this year’s Hoopfest, extended its run to six by beating Mammas Boys in Sunday’s finale. MVP honors went to Parker Kelly, a former Eastern Washington standout who scored the first several points of the game.

The club has won every such title since 2017, as Hoopfest went on a two-year hiatus from 2020-2021 because of covid.

Hub Northwest also got a nice boost from former Zag Mike Hart, who rarely looks to shoot. He connected on a late 2-pointer to all but seal the deal, the winning free throw coming from Marc Axton, another former Eagle.

“It feels incredible,” Kelly said. “I mean, we don’t take these for granted, because we know how hard they are to get every year. Thankful to be able to play with such a great group of guys. They’re just the best.”

“It’s just awesome,” Hart added. “We just come back because we love playing together. We love Hoopfest. We hope people like playing against us because we have a heck of a lot of fun playing together. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we do it.”

Be Ball For Life clips Big Juicy for men’s 6-foot and under title

There was a span of a few minutes late in the men’s 6-foot and under title game when both teams, Be Ball For Life and Big Juicy, were trying to end the game with a 2-pointer. Tied at 18-all, both clubs were going for the kill shot, shots rimming out as a packed center court crowd watched with bated breath.

Instead, Be Ball For Life used two one-pointers to secure the win, the final basket coming courtesy of Joshua Thomas, who stuck back a miss for the final margin.

“Anybody who’s ever played with me knows that that’s kinda my game,” Thomas said. “I really love players like Dennis Rodman. Rebounding has always been something that’s huge for me. The thing is, having someone that’s willing to go crash the offensive boards is so rare, and having a defense that’s willing to box you out.

“Those are the kinds of winning plays that I love. Not stepbacks, threes — just grimy ball, who wants it more kind of a thing.”

He likely wasn’t paying attention at the moment, but the game ball bore one of Thomas’ touches, too. He designed the Hoopfest 24 wordmark logo, which was printed on all the game balls, a nod to Thomas’ work as a graphic designer.

Thomas creates for an agency called Legit Creative, he said, and he’s now helped with Hoopfest’s design for about five events. This year’s Hoopfest wordmark was actually supposed to go on shirts for last year’s event, Thomas explained, but officials didn’t use it.

A year later, Hoopfest pulled the trigger, and Thomas won a title with his own work printed on the ball.

Empire Fitness takes home women’s elite crown

The first game to feel the effects of a brief downpour on Sunday, at least at center court, was the women’s elite title game between Empire Fitness and the Tomato Street Ballers, who had won each of the past two years’ championships. The Street Ballers took a small lead into the middle of the game, at which point the contest was paused and moved over to the street courts when the rain subsided.

Empire Fitness used it to their advantage. The team of former Gonzaga players — MVP Jazmine Redmond, Shaniqua Niles, Chelsea Winters and Jessie Loera — came back to clip the Street Ballers and end their two-year run at the top.

“Honestly, just wanted to play with a couple of my old Zag teammates,” Loera said. “So we came together and it was just a lot of fun playing with your old teammates and coming back to Spokane, where we all met each other. It’s always a lot of fun.”

Empire Fitness also got a boost from former Zag and Eastern Washington standout Jessie Loera, a late injury fill-in. She got the chance to play against one of her former GU assistant coaches, Stacey Clinesmith, a Tomato Street Ballers staple.

“It was a lot of fun. I mean, we’re all so competitive,” Loera said. “And I think that’s just what we were focused on. But we all knew at the end, we’re all here to play and just have fun and go hard. We wanna win.”

Kent native Tyler Cronk wins third straight dunk contest

Tyler Cronk, winner of the past two Hoopfest dunk contests, brought an air of spontaneity to Sunday’s finals. Standing on the right side of the court, he called over to one of his friends.

“If I hit this,” Cronk said, “you owe me $20.”

With that, Kronk jogged up to the basket, bounced the ball between his legs as he leapt, caught it with his right hand and flushed it through, completing the slam that effectively sealed the win. It was only about his fifth time finishing that dunk, he added.

A former high jumper at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Cronk used every drop of his jumping abilities in Sunday’s finale, much to the enjoyment of a packed crowd at center court. For his first dunk, he pulled a fan out of the crowd — a shorter man he didn’t know prior — and jumped over him for a flush.

“He said, jump over me,” Cronk said. “I said, OK, cool. I hadn’t done it in a dunk contest yet.”