Cruz tops Kimmel in ‘Blobfish’ basketball game

The trash-talking ended Saturday and the one-on-one basketball began. When it was over, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had defeated ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, 11-9.

The game, dubbed the Blobfish Basketball Classic, was played in front of a large crowd at Texas Southern University’s Health and Physical Education Arena in Houston.

“The reason this is happening is because after Game 7 of the [NBA] Western Conference Finals, I likened Sen. Cruz to a blobfish,” Kimmel explained, according to Deadline.com. “And he did not like that … so he challenged me to a game of one-on-one. And I accepted.”

The two players agreed that the loser would donate $5,000 to a charity picked by the winner, but both later agreed to donate $10,000 to both charities, the Texas Tribune reported.

Cruz selected Generation One Texas, an anti-poverty organzation, while Kimmel chose the Texas Children’s Hospital, the Tribune reported.

The game also provided some publicity for Cruz’s re-election bid against Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke, the publication noted.

Video from the game is scheduled to air Monday night on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

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