BURLINGTON, Vt. – University of Vermont seniors Trae Bell-Haynes and Payton Henson have been selected to take part in this year’s inaugural 3X3U National Basketball Championship, along with New Hampshire’s Tanner Leissner and UMass-Lowell’s Jahad Thomas. This new event features 32 four-man teams consisting of players selected from every Division I college basketball conference playing against each other in a three day, 3-on-3 tournament in San Antonio, the home of the Final Four. All players in the tournament will be seniors who are no longer eligible to play college basketball and they will now be legally competing for a $100,000 prize pool.
Rules of the tourney: half-court with two teams of four players, with one substitute per team; a 12-second shot clock; a basket made inside of the arc will be worth one point and any attempt made behind the arc will be worth two points; the first team to reach 21 points or the team with the best score after 10 minutes wins the game.
Bell-Haynes, a two-time conference Player of the Year, has made records while at UVM. The native of Toronto, Ontario finished his UVM career with 1,629 points and reached No. 8 on the program’s all-time scoring list. The 6-3 guard cracked the top-five all-time with 518 career assists, and is only one of three players in school history to be a part of the 1,500 point-500 assist club. Bell-Haynes was also named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-District I Team and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District I Team.
Henson made his mark on the UVM program after transferring from Tulane. He averaged 11.9 points and 5.4 rebounds over two seasons with UVM. He recorded a 47.9% field goal percentage and 36.7% three-point percentage during his time with the Catamounts. Henson became the 38th member of UVM’s 1,000-point club combined with his scoring totals with the Green Wave. He is a two-time America East All-Conference Third Team selection. In his junior year, he scored the decisive layup in the final minute of the 2017 America East Championship Game, and helped give Vermont its sixth conference championship.
Tanner Leissner averaged 18.7 points and 6.9 rebounds for UNH in his senior year. This was after impressing with 17.1 PPG and 6.9 RPG in his junior campaign. Leissner finished his career with the Wildcats with an astounding 1,962 points and 862 rebounds. He has scored the second most points in the AEC since the 2009-10 season, and is third in PPG in the conference since 09-10. After playing against the Wildcats this year, Niagara head coach Chris Casey said, “[Leissner’s] really good. He’s a problem because he can score from the perimeter, shooting the ball. He can drive the ball. He’s very physical and tough around the basket. He’s a problem.”
The 3X3U National Championship begins on Friday, March 30 with 24 pool play games streamed live on Twitter from 7:00 p.m.-12:30 a.m. EST and will continue on Saturday, March 31 with another 24 pool play games streamed live on Twitter from 11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. EST. The event will conclude on Sunday, April 1 with the quarterfinals broadcasted live on Twitter from 1:35-3:00 p.m. EST. The semifinals, third-place consolation game, and championship game will be nationally televised on ESPN2 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. EST.
For more information on the 3X3U National Championship, visit 3X3UHoops.com.
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