It all began at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Heartland Events Center with Palmer downing Heartland Lutheran. It was nearly 10:30 p.m. when Ralston put the finishing touches on a victory over Sioux City Heelan in the seventh and final game of the day.

In between, there was plenty of good basketball. Event organizer Tino Martinez said 3,500 fans attended the games.

"I think for the first year and given the fact it's the first time I've done something like this, I'm very satisfied," Martinez said. "I just hope everybody had a good time watching it and the student-athletes had a good time playing."

Plans are already being made for the second annual Heartland Hoops Classic to be played on Feb. 14, 2009. Martinez said three games have already been lined up. The contracts have been sent out but not yet received. He'll be looking for three more games to fill up the schedule.

Saturday's schedule was certainly full. The premier game was probably the battle between D-1 No. 1-ranked Archbishop Bergan featuring Iowa State recruit Wes Eikmeier and Ainsworth with Colorado State recruit Jesse Carr leading the way.

The two big names, who hung out together after the game for quite some time, didn't disappoint. Eikmeier poured in 33 points while Carr had 27 in Bergan's 77-54 victory.

Attendance seemed to be at its highest for the Grand Island vs. Kearney boys game at 5:15 p.m. followed by the Bergan-Ainsworth contest.

"I think the traffic was good," Martinez said. "It started getting thicker around the Boys Town-Grand Island Northwest game and I think people came and stayed from there on.

"I'm very pleased with it. I'm just glad everything went off like it did."

The coaches were also unanimous in their praise for the Hoops Classic. Bergan coach Chris Paulson said his team was thrilled to get a chance to finally play Ainsworth. The game was originally scheduled for the Qwest Center in Omaha, but that event was cancelled.

"It was a great opportunity to come here," Paulson said. "We were obviously disappointed that Qwest Center fell through, but to have this come available for it was tremendous. It's a great venue and a great opportunity for a lot of people to meet halfway and watch some great basketball."

After watching his team beat Wahoo, Grand Island Central Catholic coach Bill Gavers said it was a great event for the school and the community.

"It takes a lot of organization to do it," Gavers said. "We're happy to be a part of it and we'd like to be a part of it in the future also."

The event also gave the participating teams a chance to play in a different venue, similar to what they might be facing in postseason play.

"It was a great experience for our kids," Gavers said. "It's a bigger venue, a different environment. We always talk about in February when you play for something big in the end you don't play in your own building. You play in different venues.

"You have to be ready to go and adjust to things. I think our kids did a good job adjusting to it."

The Heartland Events Center probably looked the biggest to Palmer and Heartland Lutheran. The players on those two teams have never played in an arena that size.

Heartland Lutheran, in just its fourth season of varsity basketball, has never been to the state tournament. Palmer hasn't been there since winning the Class D-1 state championship in 1984.

"It was kind of funny walking in because it's big," Palmer coach Matt Koehler said. "You can tell them how big it is. You can tell them it's like Pershing (Center), but if they've never been to Pershing it's kind of hard to understand.

"But it's big. It's fun for the kids. I think they really enjoyed it. It gave them that championship atmosphere."

Bob Hamar is assistant sports editor for The Independent.

Heartland Hoops Photos