For one weekend, Auburn’s Thoroughbred racetrack became a hotbed for hoops.

More than 1,000 players from 262 teams converged on 29 half-courts in Emerald Downs’ north parking lot for the inaugural EmD 3-On-3 basketball tournament.Boys and girls, men and women competed for titles in 29 divisions.

Erin Jones, 42, (pictured below guarding Auburn Riverside graduate Taylor Wofford) came all the way from Lacey to compete with her Divine ICE teammates, Denisha Saucedo, Rebecca Frazier and Marla Klein, in the College Women’s Division.

“We lost our first game by one point and then haven’t lost a game since,” said Jones, a former college (Bryn Mawr) and professional (Mexico City) basketball player. “(It) really stinks because now we have to fight our way through the losers’ bracket. So we have five games today.”

For Jones, who helped event organizers attract many of the female players in the tourney, the EmD 3-On-3 was a rousing success.

“I love it, I wish they’d do it every year,” she said. “I didn’t want to promote it too much at first because I hadn’t experienced it yet, but I’d say now that this is as well-organized as Hoopfest. I hope it expands for next year and they do it annually. I think there are a lot of players on this side that would be interested in playing.

“The competition level is higher than (Spokane’s) Hoopfest for me,” Jones added. “I think part of the reality for us in the women’s divisions in a hoopfest is broken into so many smaller divisions. Here we’re all grouped together, so you’re seeing the best players in the area playing.”

In addition to two days of top-level basketball, spectators were treated to live entertainment, sampled food from local food trucks and many hoisted cold one at the event’s beer garden.

All this was made possible by local businesses, including sponsors such as Regence Health Care, Doxon Toyota, Olympic Eagle Distributing, Les Schwab, the City of Auburn and the Auburn Tourist Board, as well as Sterling Athletics – which provided game balls for the tourney.

“The idea was to bring the community together and grow this,” Fraser said earlier. “All of the baskets (were) made locally by Miller Fabrication, which designed and built them. Each court (was) sponsored by a business. And Mark Doxon, of Doxon Toyota, (donated) $10,000 to the Auburn Valley YMCA. A donation also (was) made by the tourney to the Aaron Brooks foundation.”

Both days kicked off with a breakfast offering all-you-can eat pancakes for just $5, sponsored by the Auburn Rotary.

To view the brackets, visit www.emd3on3.com.