So much for the heat that was supposed to put a damper on the 24th annual Spokane Hoopfest 3-on-3 basketball tournament on Saturday.

The unexpected rain throughout the morning did enough of that.

AFTER NOT being able to play in the tournament for the past eight years, former Montana and Lake City High standout Katie Baker made up for lost time in a hurry — playing games back-to-back early on.

Baker, who graduated in the spring from Montana, reunited with her Montana teammates to form “NBC Montana” in the women’s elite division. She also played on “Duck Commander” with her older brothers Daniel and David Baker — who both played at Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy.

Due to the length of earlier games on their court, Katie had to leave the elite game early, and NBC Montana ended up losing to White Gurlz. Baker’s team, which also included former Griz Kenzie DeBoer, Alyssa Smith and Ali Hurley, bounced back to beat the EWU Has Beens, then lost to Trail Mix and will play a consolation game this morning.

“It’s Hoopfest,” Katie said. “It’s calling all ballers from around the nation. I love to play the game and come every year to watch. It’s great to play with them (Montana girls) again. We’re the dream team. We’ve been through four years of ball together. To be able to come back here, we’re old and washed up now, but it’s nice to throw a game together. It’s just fun.”

In Duck Commanders’ first game, they lost to Warlock, then came back to beat Not Sure and Brown Ballers to remain in the championship hunt.

“It’s great,” Katie said. “I love my brothers, and it’s about time to be back here. I haven’t played at Hoopfest since my eighth-grade year and it’s nice to be able to play with them and be with my family. It’s great to be back.”

Her playing career might not be over quite yet.

“I’m looking to play overseas, hopefully in Europe somewhere,” Baker said. “Right now, I’m working camps and kind of bumming around here (Coeur d’Alene) and Kalispell (Mont.) and kind of living the dream.”

“I haven’t played with her in years,” Daniel Baker said. “She’s been doing her thing and we haven’t been able to do something like this with her playing in college. It’s really awesome to get to play with her. It’s one thing to see her from the top of the stands, but to see her on the court (as a teammate), this might be a casual thing to some — but she’s got the same competitive edge she’s always played with.”

AFTER AN attempt to walk on to the men’s basketball team at Idaho, former Priest River High standout Max Salesky is looking for a change of scenery.

“I made the team last year and played with them for two seasons, but I’m not going to play next year,” Salesky said. “I’m looking at transferring next year.”

Salesky appeared in one game — an exhibition game against Walla Walla — for the Vandals as a sophomore.

“I’m looking at either Snow College, NIC (North Idaho College) and some area schools,” Salesky said. “But right now, I’m keeping my options open.”

The Hotshooters, comprised — originally, anyway — of four teammates from Priest River’s state 3A title team of 2010 — went 0-2 on Saturday and dropped into the consolation bracket today.

But when one of the former Spartans, Brian Nelson, couldn’t play because of an injury, the team called upon a former coach to fill in.

Troy Barrett, 50, who coached Salesky, Tyler Douglas and his son, Jaden, in middle school, stepped in at the last minute.

“I love everything about playing in Hoopfest,” said Troy Barrett, who is playing in his 20th of 24 Hoopfest tournaments. “An injury kind of forced me into it. But when they asked, I said ‘Do I have to?’ But it’s been a lot of fun.”

“He’s played with us since we were 8 years old,” Salesky said. “He was our coach in junior high and every Sunday, we go to the gym and play basketball with fathers and sons. We’ve been playing with him for the last 10 years — and Troy’s good. Everyone might think he’s old, but he can play. Troy knows the basketball, the rim and all the angles and how to play the court. I’m really happy he’s on our team.”

SOME TEAMS are formed over time.

Others are formed through friendships made at church or a men’s basketball league.

“Normally, I play with my son in the 20-21 year olds, but he hurt his knee and couldn’t play this year,” said John Waco, 45. “We all go to Real Life (Ministries) in Post Falls and play together on Monday nights, so we just wanted to play together and make something happen in our own age group.”

Team RLM lost its first game 17-12 to Cougar Husky Hybrids, then lost to This Is It to move into the consolation championship game.

“It was great basketball and good camaraderie,” said Duane Oliver, also 45. “It wasn’t quite a gentlemen’s game, but a good game. At our age, we’ve lost a little bit of that angry, aggression and issues like that. And they were all attorneys, so you’ve got to be nice.”

Waco sells dental equipment for Patterson Dental in Post Falls. Oliver is a real estate agent for Century 21 in Coeur d’Alene.

“We still have a high level of play at our age,” Oliver said. “That’s what keeps us playing our game is the youth.”

For the Silver Valley Wildcats, outside of one year, they’ve played in the last six Hoopfests, with the same team throughout. All are headed into the eighth grade at Kellogg Middle School this fall.

“We put this team together in second grade and we’ve kept it,” Tyler Gibbons said. “We love working together and playing really well.”

The Wildcats won both games in a rainstorm, advancing to the semifinals today.

“It’s kind of cool,” Gibbons said. “It’s never rained on Hoopfest when we’ve played in it. I don’t know that it helped us, but we tried as hard as we could.”