It was a long day but definitely worth it. Beyond equality, Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in public service and service to one another. “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve,” Dr. King said. "You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

The Southern Arizona community came together, like they have for the past 19 years, to make the 20th edition of the MLK Basketball Classic a success. Organizations such as Coaches for Charity, which the AIA is a member of, and others in the Tucson area, spent months planning and then bringing a day-long exhibition of games featuring our high school youth competing in one of the most important Division I arenas in the country – McKale Memorial Center - on the University of Arizona campus and the reward was the labor of love itself.

The games played at the MLK Classic are real games with power-points attached. Schools willingly moved a regular season game to MLK Day to take part. This year, 16 teams took part, giving the players and fans a once in a lifetime experience of playing on the Lute and Bobbi Olson Court and it was an experience most will treasure.

The first game featured a 1A girls match with No. 1 St. David beating Baboquivari 55-24.

Mayla Trejo had 17 points for St. David, Anissa Jacquez had 10, Emma Hart added 8, Emelynn Jacquez scored 6 and Gracey Crockett had 6. For Baboquivari, Samantha Ortiz scored 8, Summer Baptista had 7 and Lamyra Juan scored 4.

In the second game, 1A No. 3 Desert Christian beat 2A Benson 53-39 after being down 25-21 at the half.

Tyson Dobbins scored 16 for Desert Christian, Adam Vavala had 14, Jonathan Brown had 10 and Bennet Vondrak scored 9. For Benson, Dalton Crocket had 16 and Dominik Villa scored 15.

Next came a victory for the Cholla girls over Desert View 48-17.

Aniyah Wilmott scored 11 for Cholla, Yuri Shimosaka scored 17 and Jurisa Ramos had 5. Andrea Cervantes scored 8 for Desert View and Zarriyanna Bacon had 4.

The Tanque Verde boys beat Catalina 77-27 in the next game.

Zac Levy scored 8 for Tanque Verde, Rich Knott had 9, as did Jacob Dickens 9, Phil Knott poured in 19 and Jiang Lin added 7. Isaiah Duarte scored 7 for Catalina and Kyle Ellias had 10.

The Rio Rico girls beat Palo Verde 71-20 in the next game.

Rio Ricos was led by 23 points from Natalia Gonzales, Debanny Cota added 15 and Daiana Hollman had 9. Palo Verde went with most of their starts absent and Lillyana Pinkerton and Sydney Menez scored 5 each.

Cienega beat Rincon/University 78-57 in another boy’s game.

Jackson Moore scored 16 for Cienega, Evan Golembieski had 13, Issac Sdobnev scored 14 and Jayden Rogers had 13. Sam O'Dowd scored 14 for Rincon/UHS, Zaire Hays had 15 and Luis Ruiz added 11.

The Tucson girls beat Nogales 51-44 with the Badgers scoring the final seven points in the last 36 seconds.

Destiney Brown had 22 for Tucson and Kamila Vasavilbaso had 9. Cecy Burreal scored 22 for Nogales and Mia Rodriguez added 9.

4A No. 5 Sahuaro beat Pueblo 63-31 in the final game.

Cisco Llams scored 13 for Sahauro, Jamal Ali scored 11, Julian Yazon added 9, and Nick Ponds had 8. Jorge Franco and Jacob Maya scored 7 each for Pueblo and Javin Jones added 6.