by GRETTE MANBIOTAN
FIBA 3×3 World Tour Comeback in Abu Dhabi showed impactful matches to show-off the world as Riga ended Ub’s long winning streak in the classic finals, October 2021.
The two-day event happened in just a glimpse and is said to resume by November 6-7 at Mexico City Masters.
Riga was able to claim their win this Masters with their gang back together to break their winless drought. The awesome foursome – who all hold an Olympic Gold medal – had not played together since the decisive game at the Tokyo Olympics, but showed a legendary performance as they returned at once.
The team was unstoppable as their MVP Karlis Lamanis equaled 36 points while Nauris Miezis, his sidekick, scored big shots that slewed. Predictably, both made it to the top 5 plays of the tournament and were stars of the game like usual. But, they are more than their dynamic duo and their balance was highlighted in the finals when all of the four players scored at least 5 points.
For a brief moment, Ub has won 14 games in a row, which is quite outstanding – before losing to Riga in the finals. Either way, Ub had a successful tournament, reaching the final towards their last four Masters with an ending score of 18-20 that was a close match.
Strahinja Stojacic finished first in player value in Abu Dhabi and later got news that he became the newest number one 3×3 player in the world.
Antwerp showed a remarkable performance as they reached the knock-out rounds at the five Masters they have competed and also reached semi-final thrice, including in Abu Dhabi. But Riga crushed them in the semi-final with a score of 21-12 which was a disappointing exit for them.
Raising the flag of Philippines for David Carlos aka ‘Air David’ surpasses Top-Dunker considering that he excelled Ukrainian great Vadim ‘Miller’ Poddu Chenko who previously won in Prague. Filipino fans went wild in the bleachers when ‘Air David’ showed his striking dunk over three volunteers.
“The World Tour remains unpredictable,” stated in FIBA’s Official Website when they witnessed the determined teams from tournament to tournament is becoming more harder to predict. This season’s World Tour has reached a new level of sportsmanship globally that history will surely mark.
FEPS JOINS FIBA
Far Eastern Private School cheer dancers were also present on the said event as they performed their winning cheer dance piece last year to grace the opening of the competition. Audience were ecstatic when dancers from both FEPS campus (Shabah and Halwan) started to groove their dance masterpiece.
