MONTEGO BAY, St. James - Just over $30,000 was raised at Sunday's hastily put together Western Basketball Association's (WBA) 'Hoops for Haiti' fundraiser at the Montego Bay Cricket Club.

The funds were raised through a variety of means including the passing of buckets during the basketball double-header as well as a bet between WBA's president Donalda Reid and her husband Douglas Reid, coach of the Hoopers team that took on an All-star aggregation in the feature game.

Mrs Reid, who managed the All-star team, made a bet with her husband as to which team would win, but after the teams played to an exciting 98-98 draw both put their contributions in the bucket.

A total of $30, 733 was raised and handed over to a Red Cross of Jamaica representative. "We are pleased with the overall day and given the short time in which we had to plan this, we can't complain too much, plus we had great basketball here tonight, " said the WBA president.

She said planning for the event began just at the start of that week but they managed to put together an entertainment package that included Digicel Rising Star winner Brown Sugar, the Mahogany Dancers and a group called Prince Max and Friends, all of whom performed free.

Meanwhile in the basketball games Goyan Malcolm of Catherine Hall All-Stars scored a game high 22 points for the All-star team that led most of the way before a late charge from Hoopers, the NBL-West champions, caught them up.

In addition, Oniel Clarke scored 14 points, Leroy Lawrence -13, Dave Black -12 and Huwayne Blake 10 for the All-stars team.

Neville Claire and Omar Bell led Hoopers with 18 points apiece, Levar Rose scored 16, Rayan Bolt scored 12 while Kemmar Dean had 10 points.

In the first game of the double header, Division Two champions City Knights eased their way to an easy 76-30 win over a team made up of former players and females.

By Paul Reid for Jamaica Observer