But at the end of the magical day the big winners were not the players or coaches.

It was the children at the Montreal Children's Hospital, unfortunate enough to be lying in beds suffering from cancer.

They were the beneficiaries of the $3,000 raised through canteen sales, cash donations and raffle prizes, all of which went to the Sian Bradwell Foundation.

It's a completely volunteer-run organization that uses the money to buy new medical equipment and help support research so that one day a cure can be found for the disease.

Sharon Bradwell, a former West Island resident, started the foundation with her husband Ken after their daughter Sian died from a rare form of cancer in 1986 at only 17 months old.

She was on hand to watch the proceedings and lend her support.

"One of the nicest things about this event is watching the youngsters play," she said. "Children with cancer must be very careful when they play sports like basketball because of the potential for contact.  Their bones become brittle and frangible.  To see money being raised by children for children through games is just fantastic."

WILBA house-league vice-president Mike Gaudin was ecstatic.

"Our key was to get over $1,000. We tripled that and never in our wildest dreams did I think that was possible," he said.

"The only area of improvement for next year would be getting the word out so that people can come down and participate in our interactive basketball games.

"But as far as the games played here today, well, there was really no purpose to win. The sole purpose of the coaches was to show off the talent," he added.

There was no lack of that in the bantam game, won 61-48 by the West over the East. They never trailed in the game and were never really in trouble.

They gave everyone in the packed gym full of parents and supporters an indication they meant business early, putting together a 10-point run in the opening minutes of the first quarter en route to taking an 18-2 lead.

But like every all-star basketball game, defence was at a premium, and they allowed the East to crawl back to within five points at the half. That was as close the East would come in the game, though.

The West were led by a stellar performance by forward J.F. Langlois, who scored 18 points and was particularly strong under the boards.

Fernando Franco led the East with nine points.

"We were just out here for fun," said West head coach Alain Richard. "There was no prizes involved. Everyone received plaques. There was no rough stuff. We just told the kids to remember the fundamentals and go out there and enjoy themselves."

One player who did just on the West was Micha Blomkvist, who scored 12 points, while hustling all afternoon, showing a lot of heart.

Blomkvist was playing in his third consecutive all-star game.