Monstars no match
for Free Agents’
solid defense
Carlos Gonzalez / Reporter
After a long three weeks of a great 3v3 season of intramural basketball, the finals arrived. The championship took place over two days, starting Oct. 30. Twelve teams entered but only one would be crowned champion.
To keep the tournament going for two days, Intramurals Director Ryan Murphy broke the bracket into two, an undefeated bracket and a loser bracket, so whichever team was knocked out they would still have their chance to play their way back for the gold. Each game was timed for 20 minutes, and whoever made it to 20 points or was in the lead when time expired would move on.
It seemed that the Monstars would have this championship in the bag, but they would be facing the Prime Kidd$ in their first game of the tournament. The Prime Kidd$ were the underdogs going into the first game but soon would rise up and defeat the Monstars — a great start for the Prime Kidd$, who pushed their way up through the bracket. Reaching the quarterfinals in the first day, Prime Kidd$ would be playing Handle This, another great team that showed much promise during the season. Unfortunately Handle This put Prime Kidd$ to work. It was a close and intense game but Nick Hymes had shut down the Kidd$ with his final three-pointer with no time left for any type of comeback.
Another team that showed great potential was the Free Agents, who had a slow start in the beginning of the three-week league, making everyone believe they were free agents for a reason. When it came down to playing for the championship, they pulled together, making their way up the bracket and landing a spot in the finals undefeated.
Even though they didn’t have a good start, the Monstars would not let their first lost affect them. In fact it motivated them and fueled their fire, taking them all the way up the loser bracket to the finals, where they would face the undefeated Free Agents. If they were to win the gold, the Monstars would have to defeat Free Agents twice!
There would be no time limit; first team to 20 points wins it all. Both teams came in with the passion to win but the Free Agents had more passion and played great defense against the Monstars. Keeping the team scattered across the court, this made the Monstars desperately shoot for three-pointers, giving the Free Agents advantage over rebounds. With no time limit, it didn’t take much time for the Free Agents to take over the first and only game, crowning them the champions of the 3v3 Basketball League.
