On Saturday night, three women’s teams and 20 men's teams faced off in Southern’s three-on-three basketball tournament. This tournament lasted from 7:30 p.m. until around 12:15 a.m. After putting in some serious work, the The PowerPuff Boys and the Hotrods emerged as the 2018 champions.
The PowerPuff Boys were comprised of Dalmax Trasporte, junior physical therapist assistant major, Matthew Butcher-Steinke, junior corporate/community wellness management major, Josh Esten, freshman accounting major and Kyle Salas, freshman nursing major.
The Hotrods’s roster included Mei Chin, freshman chemistry major, Alexandra Candamil, freshman allied health major, Camille Chu, freshman biology major and Annelise Scales, freshman psychology major.
When asked about the success of his team, The PowerPuff Boys, Trasporte stated, “The main factor is trust. I had faith and believed in my teammates.”
Salas added, “Chemistry is what made us successful. If you have that you can beat any team you want.”
Although the team found success, it wasn’t all positive for them as playing so many games back-to-back can be exhausting.
“The constant stop and go of the games was pretty difficult. Alongside that, the games caused injuries and lots of fatigue,” Esten said.
Salas agreed and said, “Our whole team got injured, and we still had to push through.”
Trasporte shared his personal struggle: “For me personally, I was dealing with muscle cramps. Playing basketball for 4-5 hours can be exhausting, so it's important to stay hydrated.” Despite this, they pushed through and reached their goal.
The Hotrods’ all freshman lineup also shared their thoughts on the tournament.
“This was all of our first times playing basketball in college! We were all so nervous before our first game. We just tried to find team chemistry, since we are from totally different schools,” Chu said. “Since the beginning of the semester, we’ve always talked about playing together, and we wanted a team of freshman girls since we’re really close and we all really love basketball.”
Scales added to that and said, “It was hard working together with little-to-no practice, but our team is special because we’re really good friends and we also have really similar skill sets.”
Both teams showed that they not only had impressive skills, but the resilience to play such rapid games.