Chosen Few finish strong, land NCA GENESIS 3x3 basketball title

THE Chosen Few team recovered from a disastrous start to take the New Chapter Global Sports Academy (NCA) GENESIS 3x3 Basketball Series, which was held at the Princess Royal Basketball Court in Arima on December 20.

The one-day tourney saw eight teams, which were internally drafted from NCA’s talent pool fighting for top honours in the fast-paced 3x3 format. With the teams split into two groups of four, The Chosen Few team, which featured Samuel Edwards, Matthias Phillips, Kai Sunich and star player Jervais Edwards-Caracciolo, had a rough time in the group phase as they ended it with an 0-3 record. Entering the knockout phase of the tourney as heavy underdogs, The Chosen Few finally began to click and went on an incredible run, which landed them in the final against The Mighty Men. Led by the tournament’s MVP Taalib Daniel, The Mighty Men took control early in the finale as they opened up a 5-0 lead. With an improved defensive showing, The Chosen Few dragged themselves back into the game and the teams soon began trading buckets in an intense head-to-head clash.

With just under three minutes left, Edwards-Caracciolo took over to shift the game’s momentum in his team’s favour with a 14-point effort, which propelled The Chosen Few to a 21-17 victory. Daniel did his best to keep The Mighty Men in the hunt and drained 12 points to take his overall tally in the tourney to 49 points. The Watchmen landed third spot in the tournament as they edged The Ark Builders 15-12 in the third-place playoff on the back of an 11-point performance from Antonio Vasquez.

GENESIS was conceptualised with the vision of enhancing TT’s development in the 3x3 game on the global stage. In the build-up to this year’s tournament, the NCA said it remained committed to ensuring TT made a grand push towards qualification for the 2026 edition of the FIBA 3X3 Under-18 World Cup.

“GENESIS forms part of the academy’s expanding 3x3 catalogue, designed to provide meaningful exposure, competitive repetition and a clear developmental pathway for young athletes,” the NCA said.