With the clock dwindling in triple overtime, the MonStars and the Manbearpigs scrambled to score the seven points needed for a win. Leading 6-2, the all-freshmen MonStars saw an opening, took the shot and won the title of Hoop Challenge winners.The MonStars, who had been playing for an exhausting five hours, walked off the court as winners of the 2009 Quaker State 3-on-3 Hoop Challenge, sponsored by University Recreation.”One word — Tampa,” shouted an excited Darian Riley, business freshman and MonStar team member, while celebrating after the game.The MonStars’ all-freshman roster included Taylor Jacobsen, Darian Riley, Cam Ballard and Bryan Keley. The players, who had never met before coming to the University, came together because of their fellow intramural players’ suggestions.”We’re on the same team for intramurals, so we’ve been playing together every Monday night,” said Jacobsen, landscape architecture freshman. “Even so, the [competition] was definitely hard. The teams we thought would be at the end definitely gave us a shock … and the teams that didn’t really stand out to us the entire game ended up giving us a run for our money.”Thirty minutes before the MonStars won the men’s final, the women’s final announced its champion. Kourtni Brown, Rayya Stevenson, Gaynelle Brown and Chelsea Ransom made up the woman’s winning team, The System, and won 24-15 over the Ballin’ Tigers.”Honestly, it [wasn’t hard],” said Kourtni Brown, kinesiology senior. “We never had to go through the whole 20 minutes. We’re definitely going all the way [in the SEC Fanfest Tournament].”The MonStars and The System will compete against other Southeastern Conference schools’ winners in Tampa, Fla., from March 12 to 15.”Quaker State … [is] trying to reach out to the average student, not just the varsity athlete,” said Matthew Boyer, University Recreation assistant director of leagues and tournaments. “[The tournament] is open to any students enrolled at LSU, as long as … they do not have an athletic scholarship … and [are not] on any varsity team.”The challenge consists of a 20-minute game or the first team to reach 24 points  — whichever comes first. There is a four-person roster maximum, with three players on the court at a time.Only four women’s teams registered for this year’s challenge, and though the number of registered men’s teams was significantly higher at 22, the lack of contestants begged Tricia Milford-Hoyt, University Recreation associate director of marketing and membership, to wonder where the countless, avid basketball players who grace UREC’s courts on a regular basis are, and why aren’t they giving the Hoop Challenge a shot?”We haven’t had a big turn out, and we’re concerned about that,” Milford-Hoyt said. “Students think that they have to be the best of the best …  [but] we would really love if 100 teams tried out, and based on what we see out on the courts everyday, there are definitely 100 teams that could participate.”Many students don’t know about the relatively new competition and may think they’re “not good enough to do it,” Milford-Hoyt said. University Recreation hopes to put these apprehensions to rest and attract a bigger group of hopefuls next year.The teams that were spirited enough to compete in the challenge, which started at 5 p.m., went through a rigorous and exciting five-hour pool play elimination process on the University Student Recreational Complex basketball courts.”[In] a pool play tournament … we randomly assign [each team] to a pool of anywhere from three to five teams,” Boyer said. “Inside the pool, they play each other team. Out of the pool, the champion or champion and runner-up will advance to a single-elimination bracket.”The pool play format makes it easier to find the best teams in each pool, eventually allowing the top teams to compete in a smaller, more condensed tournament, Boyer said. The pools permit a large amount of teams to have fun while eliminating the problems that could arise with all teams in one huge bracket.”In a big bracket, a great team might lose early,” Milford-Hoyt said. “This is a great opportunity for teams to have two chances.”When the MonStars and The System compete in Tampa, they will play for an array of prizes and the trophy that comes with being the SEC Fanfest winners.- – – -Contact Natalie Roy at [email protected]