Bucharest: The Slovenian team which couldn’t provide the final push to be the European Champions last time, and had to content with a silver medal, won the men’s leg of second edition of the FIBA 3×3 European Championships held in Bucharest, Romania between September 2-4.
In a hard fought match of Basketball, Slovenia prevailed over Serbia with a 19-17 score to win gold this time at the European Championships.
For the winners, the tournament most valuable player, Gasper Ovnik scored a game-high 8 points in the final to take home the gold medal for his team. He was aptly supported by event top scorer Anze Srebovt (5 points), Simon Finzgar and Adin Kavgic (4 and 2 points respectively), who all stood firm on ground to stop any other results from happening.
In the Team of the Tournament, the number one 3×3 player in the individual world ranking Dusan Domovic Bulut was named along with Ovnik and Dutch star Jesper Jobse.
In Bronze medal match it was Netherlands who prevailed over Russia with a 22-16 after a game-winning two-pointer courtesy of Joey Schelvis.
Schelvis, 27-year-old, was on target on Sunday and won a second medal for Netherlands after winning gold at the Shoot-Out Contest. In the Shoot-out contest, 3×3 legend and Romanian star Angel Santana and Spain’s Vega Gimeno were the other medalists who won silver and bronze respectively.
These Championships engaged the best 12 women’s and the best 12 men’s teams after a series of three qualifying tournaments, which happened priorly at Andorra, France and the Netherlands.
3×3 European national team action continues next week with the 2016 FIBA 3×3 U18 European Championships, which will take place in Debrecen, Hungary on 9-11 September.
Final Podium Standings:
1. Slovenia
2. Serbia
3. Netherlands