Following their victory at the Red Bull 3X qualifier in Memphis a few weekends ago, Seatle Force 10 doubled up with their second consecutive title at USA Basketball’s Red Bull 3X qualifier in Charlotte, NC. The rosters included professionals, top college players and local hoopers on 10 women’s teams and 12 men’s sqauds.

The women’s final saw Seattle Force 10 deafeat Connecticut by a score of 21-16. Connecticut took the early lead before Seattle’s Paisley Johnson made four straight buckets to twice tie the game and ultimately take the lead.

Seattle stretched their benefit to six before Connecticut twice cut the deficit to three, but Iimari’I Thomas made consecutive shots under the basket to push the score to 20-14. Blake Dietrick, the 2014-15 Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton, then made the game-winning bucket with a left-handed layup.

“It was fun and our competition is tough, but we just got more threes (twos) to their physicality,” said Johnson, who played collegiately at BYU and is preparing to play professionally in Europe. “If they posted us up every single time, they might have won."

Seattle Force 10 won five-of-six games in Saturday’s tournament. They defeated an entry from Duke University by a score of 21-19 in their final game of pool play. They next trounced the CharLIT GOATS 21-9 in the semifinals before advancing to the finals for the triumph.

Ball is Life Midwest also claimed a road win with the St. Louis, Mo. squad defeating Charlotte-based Money Team by a score of 21-19. The local squad made a feverish comeback in the final two minutes, with Al’lonzo Coleman making back-to-back two-point shots to pull within one mark (19-20) but Dewshan Munson ended the game moments later with a spinning shot fading from the lane.

The game featured four lead changes, but consistent two-point shooting by Evan Forhetz, who played collegiately at Freed-Hardeman Unniversity (Tenn.), pushed Ball is Life into the lead twice.

“The three keys to 3x3 are cardio, defense and two-point shooting,” said Forhetz. “Saw a lot of really good shooters today. First time playing with the Ball is Life squad and Munson and Mike (Chandler) and Tyler (Boring) just helped me out defensivlely so much and just allowed me to run around like Steph Curry and try and find some open threes.”

Ball is Life Midwest won all six of their contests on Saturday.

As the winning teams, Seattle Force 10 and Ball is Life Midwest each take home a $3,500 prize purse. The top four men’s and women’s teams also advance to the Red Bull USA Basketball 3x3 Regional Qualifiers later this year. These teams will also have a shot to play at the Red Bull USA Basketball 3X Nationals in 2023, which will be used to evaluate members for the USA men’s and women’s 3x3 national teams.

The Red Bull 3X qualifiers, regionals and Red Bull USA Basketball 3X Nationals are played on a half court with a 10-minute game clock and 12-second shot clock, where the winner is the first team to 21 points or the team in the lead at the end of the 10-minute regulation.

Red Bull is the official energy drink of USA Basketball and will support the USA Basketball Men’s and Women’s National Teams.

For more information, please visit www.redbull.com/3X.