By Isiah REYES

The Glendale firefighters battled against the Glendale Police Dept. in front of about 200 attendees during the fourth annual Hoop Heroes basketball game held at Glendale High School on Sunday.

The purpose of the game was to help raise money for the Salvation Army’s after-school program Zone Academy. The program is entirely community-funded and offers tutoring, homework help and character-building activities.

“[The event] actually supports the after school programs, so anytime something like that is involved, we definitely like to be a part of it,” Abe Chung said, a player for the Glendale Police Dept. who was participating in his third consecutive year. “The best part is we do it for a great cause, but we also create camaraderie not only with the police department, but with the fire department as well.”

The game was tightly contested throughout. The Glendale police jumped out to an early lead but the fire department stormed back. At the end of the third quarter, the fire department led 45-43. The police department could not catch up and resorted to fouling to stop the clock, but it was to no avail. The final score was 57-54 in favor of the fire department.

Each attendee paid $5 to get in and received a raffle ticket. Throughout the game, raffle numbers were announced. At halftime, five lucky participants were chosen to shoot a half court shot with the chance of winning $500. Although no one made the shot, a few were close. During the game, canned goods were collected for  the Salvation Army.

There was a pregame match between the Glendale Sunrise Rotary and the Kiwanis Club of Glendale. The Rotary Club won that contest 21-15.

  Isiah REYES