With a charitable goal in mind, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee raised money for the University of New Orleans’ student athletes with a 3-on-3 basketball tournament on Sunday, held in Hamilton Gymnasium. The SAAC is an organization that involves University of Denver’s NCAA student athletes who come together and organize events such as homecoming formals, athlete banquets and charity fundraisers.”It’s a way for student athletes to be connected to the community,” said Brooke Meyer, a sophomore basketball player and SAAC member.In the ‘Savin’ the Cajun,’ tournament, each team that participated paid $40 to compete. The SAAC plans to donate all of the proceeds from the tournament directly to the University of New Orleans’ athletic department.Among the many losses of the hurricane was the loss of funding for the New Orleans athletic teams.”We wanted to focus on helping their athletic department,” said Meyer.The University of New Orleans and University of Denver are both members of the Sun Belt Conference in the NCAA.”They’re opponents of ours, but we still felt that extra desire to have a charity function for their cause,” said Alyssa Hampton, a sophomore volleyball player who is also a SAAC member.The tournament began at 11 a.m. and consisted of 12 different teams. Each team comprised of four members, but had three playing on the court at a time. Teams were allowed to include both males and females of all skill levels, but most of the players were male, with only two girls participating.The games were 15 minutes each, half court with a running clock timed format. Had there been a tie, there would have been a three-point shoot out.Between games, teams got 10-minute breaks.The tournament was organized with three pools of teams, four teams in each pool. Each team played within their own pool, followed by a round robin style format.”Each team was guaranteed three games,” said Meyer.The top eight teams went into the championship bracket of the tournament where they played each other in single elimination matches. The four final teams competed for a slot in the final game in very close scoring matches. “[The final four] were very competitive and very close,” said Meyer.The winners of the tournament were students Rob Young, Douglas Brown, Dan Callahan and Mike DiPaolo. Their team won 31-22 and as champions, earned numerous gift certificates and T-shirts. “We just thought it would be fun,” said Callahan.This was the SAAC’s first year running a charitable basketball tournament. Because of this, turnout was minimal, but organizers believe their first attempt was an excellent accomplishment.”We thought it was a great success,” said Meyer. “We couldn’t expect too much.”The SAAC currently plans to hold more charitable basketball tournaments in the future.”We might want to try to make [the tournament] annual,” said Meyer. “Overall it was very competitive and everyone seemed to have a good time.”