The Outsiders reigned supreme as champions of the 3v3 basketball tournament after putting on an impressive shooting performance to take down the previously undefeated Team Flight, 15-5.
Comprised of Mark Rosales, Nate Alfaro, Elijah Bernal, Jordan Ramos, Corey Watson and Timothy Hernandez, The Outsiders all had to step up at times when members of their team were unavailable to play.
During the second day of the round-robin tournament on Sept. 15, Rosales and Alfaro were both unable to make the games including two against Team Flight, while both teams were undefeated.
Nathaniel Martinez took advantage of the situation, mixing up his game with deep range shots and scoring inside as well as showing his ability to draw attention and find his open teammates to completely control every game on Monday in route to a 12-6 and 15-8 win over The Outsiders as well as an absurd 15-0 performance against Rev Nation.
“We play at least once or twice a week, so I wanted to get my group of guys out,” Martinez said about the creation of Team Flight. His guys were Jesse Valdez and Buddy McFarlen, and they also had assistance from Roger Arocha as well as Angelo Timmerman and Nejemje Solis on days a substitute was needed to make a full team of three.
Team Puro Pan followed up Team Flight’s immaculate performance by matching it, defeating an exhausted Rev Nation 15-0 before taking on Team Flight in a match that with a win would have put Puro Pan in second place going into the final day of qualifying rounds after they managed to defeat The Outsiders.
The game was back-and-forth with nearly every point; Elisee Garcia would not be denied as he made shot after shot along with teammate Allira Chapa making multiple shots to have Puro Pan within striking distance as time wound down. Martinez and Valdez showed up late with their ability to make long-range shots and rack up the score on teams quickly as they rebounded from an 8-5 deficit to finish the game with a 14-11 win over Puro Pan.
On Sept. 17, The Outsiders were still missing Alfaro, however with Rosales back they were confident as they needed to win at least two of their three games to ensure a trip to the championship game against Team Flight.
After a scoring dispute between teams there was uncertainty about whether The Outsiders trailed by one point or were tied as the clock wound down under a minute left in their second game of the day.
Rosales took it into his own hands to settle the matter, aggressively poking the ball out from behind Carl White causing the ball to ricochet off White’s glasses and back to Rosales who quickly passed it to his teammate for the score. Regaining the ball, Rosales immediately shot from multiple steps beyond the arc and made the undoubtedly game-winning basket as time expired.
Fired up, Rosales carried that energy throughout the next game. Needing a win against newly formed Team Trinity to make the championship, Rosales attacked the basket on offense and managed his team’s defensive match-ups to ensure that they had the best chance to stop Trinity from scoring. With his team needing one more shot to reach the score limit, Rosales took on two defenders with ease, driving into the paint hard before taking a stepback shot to his left and drilling it to end the qualifying rounds.
As the championship rolled around on Sept. 22, Alfaro and Rosales were both present to bring The Outsiders back to full power as they were on the initial day of the tournament. The championship match would follow the same rules as other games, first to score 15 points or the highest score after 10 minutes would win.
Alfaro decided to waste none of that time and make his return to the tournament known as he opened the game with two shots from beyond the arc to give The Outsiders a 4-0 lead. After Rosales took it inside for another point, Alfaro went for a heat check as he made back-to-back long-range shots again to push the Outsiders lead to 9-0 only a few minutes into the game.
Alfaro and Rosales switched back and forth on Martinez to ensure he couldn’t get any easy shots. Between the size of Alfaro and aggressiveness of Rosales, this worked to perfection as Martinez continuously would drive into the paint just to end up maneuvering and finding a way to get the ball out of his hands.
Flight was able to use their team chemistry to move the ball and find other ways to score, however it was too late. After the strong opening from Alfaro, who would finish with 10 of his team’s 15 points in the 15-5 victory, The Outsiders were crowned the 3v3 basketball champions for the 2025 fall semester.
