Cole, Martin Help Team Win 3x3 Championship
NEW ORLEANS. La. – The Beast Coast Ballers, a 3x3 team featuring UConn players R.J. Cole and Tyrese Martin, won the Dos Equis 3x3U National Championship tournament Sunday, earning a team total of $70,000.
The Ballers – a combination of players from the BIG EAST Conference and Atantic-10 Conference – also included Ryan Hawkins of Creighton and D’Shawn Schwartz of George Mason. The team defeated American Made – players from the American Conference and Conference USA – by 21-17 in the championship game. Hawkins was named the tourney MVP.
The title game was worth an added $50,000 for the team, which had already banked $20,000 while working its way through the opening rounds of pool play, the quarterfinals and the semifinals. The payoff works out to $17,500 per player.
The tournament, part of this weekend’s Final Four festivities, was held at The Sugar Mill in New Orleans. It started with 16 teams, with teams from every Division I conference in the country. Games are played for 10:00 (running time) or until one team reaches 21 points, with one point awarded for a basket, or two points for a basket made from beyond the arc.
Beast Coast Ballers, posted an overall 8-2 record over three days of competition. Hawkins led the team in scoring with 64 points, closely followed by Cole with 62. Cole led all players with 8 steals, Martin was fourth in rounding and Hawkins was fourth in scoring and second in 2-point field goals. Schwartz canned the winning shot in the championship game on a mid-range turnaround jumper.
The lucrative victory capped a successful weekend for the UConn duo, who also helped the East squad post a 115-103 in the NABC-Reese’s Division I College All-Star Game on Friday in Caesars Superdome. Martin led all scorers with 22 points in that game, while Cole scored 13 points and handed out 4 assists.
Cole, a grad student, was the top scorer (15.8) and led UConn in assists (4.1) this season, while Martin, a senior, was the team’s third-leading scorer (13.6) and was the second-leading rebounder (7.5). The Huskies
posted a 23-10 record and made a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
