NEGAUNEE — The forecast didn’t look promising Sunday for the second annual Buffalo Road Invitational basketball tournament.

It started to rain mid-morning and the court was drenched. However, the tournament still went on as planned and even though the turnout wasn’t as large as last year’s event, BRI organizer Doug Lindblom said it was a successful day.

“It pretty much rained or misted all day and it made the court slippery, but a lot of people took time off and there was too many moving parts to postpone it,” he said.

“So we just played through. It wasn’t too bad though and everyone showed up. There were family and friends of the players and some community members there. The weather played a role, but a good hearty crew showed up.”

Out of the 10-team, 3-on-3 style tournament, it was Kenny & Co. who emerged as champion as they defeated Boys, Boys, Boys 11-3 and 11-7 in the best-of-three series.

Former Negaunee Miner Ben Luke of Boys, Boys, Boys was named tournament MVP and was a member of the All-Tournament First Team. Other members of the First Team were Parker Bowman, Danny Fitchett and Kenny Kinnunen. Members of the Second Team were Brock Aho, Jacob Paupore and Ryan Ayotte. Tony Nault and Ryan Syrjala earned Honorable Mention awards.

Lindblom was on Boys, Boys, Boys with Luke and this is the second straight year that his squad has lost in the finals.

“Both times that I’ve lost in the finals, I lost the first game too,” Lindblom said. “So we had to come through the losers bracket again to get back there. The good thing was that this year was a little more organized, so I didn’t have to run around as much, but it was still a busy day. Everything worked out well despite the circumstances and it was a lot of fun.”

With the tournament’s popularity growing, Lindblom is debating whether to do it again next season. He says if he’s still in town after graduating from college, he’s up for it and may make some changes.

“I’m thinking about doing it again, but there are some moving parts and I don’t know where I’m going to be in a year,” Lindblom said. “If I’m still here, I definitely think we’ll do it again and we might change things up. With it being a big event, there are a lot of people who want to participate. So it’s exclusive to 40 players and you can’t really open that up.

“So maybe next time, we can have a bigger setup and more sites than all at the same place. I don’t want to change too much though because it’s really neat right now. “

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.