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Our Basketball Contest $100 First Place winner is announced; wins by a razor thin edge
April 10, 2018
The final tallies are in on the big Basketball Tournament Contest, sponsored by Boundary County Live-NewsBF during the recently completed NCAA College Basketball Championship Tournament.

Those who entered the contest filled out their brackets for the ESPN Tournament Contest, then signed up for participation in the Boundary County Live - NewsBF Contest. A Grand Prize of $100 was awaiting the bracket with the most points at the conclusion of the championship game of the tournament.

The competition was intense, and enthusiasm ran high as the brackets of some contestants collapsed in short order during the Tournament, while others held up under the wild basketball action.

Going into the final championship game, three contestants were tied for the top spot. All three of these were not only tied, but all had picked Villanova to win the championship game. Villanova did win the championship game, so according to the contest rules, the contest winner was determined based on which entrant had most closely predicted the final score of the championship game.

That winner was Brian Rae, of Naples, whose First Place bracket accumulated 1,320 points in the contest, earning him the First Place Championship Prize of $100.



Two other contestants also scored 1,320 points. Using the Tiebreaker under the rules of the game, second place and a prize of $50 was awarded to Jesse Medearis of Missoula, Montana. Third place and a prize of $30 went to Justin Mullet of Oldtown, Idaho.

Brian Rae, our First Place winner, found out about the contest from the NewsBF Facebook page, as did many of our other contestants. Although he enjoys college basketball, he says he is primarily a football fan.

He had a remarkable run in our contest; when all the dust had settled he had correctly selected the winner of 44 games out of the total of 63 games played during the NCAA Tournament. He even correctly picked a couple of the big upsets of the Tournament: he correctly selected 13-seeded Buffalo to defeat 4-seeded Arizona, and also correctly called for 11 seed Loyola-Chicago to beat 6-seed Miami.

Asked his secret for making so many correct selections, Brian explained that he started with an "expert pick" bracket, then modified it with several of his own selections and changes. Along with entering his bracket in the Boundary County Live-NewsBF contest, he entered the same bracket in another contest, and won that contest, also. "But the NewsBF contest was much closer!" he said.

As our First Place winner, Brian Rae is awarded the $100 Grand Prize for the contest. His plan is to donate his winnings to the fund set up to help Emma Pinkerton, a young woman from Boundary County who is currently having some difficult medical problems. According to a public Facebook post from family friend Angela Jones, Emma has not been well for some time, and is consulting with specialists in Spokane and Seattle regarding her medical issues. An account has been set up at Columbia Bank in Bonners Ferry to help with her medical expenses. Good luck to Emma and to her family.

Congratulations to Brian Rae, Jesse Medearis, and Justin Mullet, our basketball contest winners.
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