Serbia, USA and France win Gold in FIBA 3×3 Worlds
The Serbian Mens team, US women’s team and the French mixed team all took home Gold medals from the first FIBA 3×3 World Championships, held in Athens, Greece.
Coming into the final day of competition, both the Ukraine and France had teams still in contention. France came out of Sunday’s final matches with an impressive haul of hardware winning Gold in the Mixed event, and Silver in both the Mens and Womens events.
The women’s championship game was close down to the wire, but the French were unable to take advantage of a late foul call that was ruled intentional, giving them a free throw and the ball back. Sylvie Gruszczynski made her free throw, but they were unable to get a shot off before the buzzer, giving the United States women the Gold medal.
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The French mens team was able to get off to a quick start against the Serbs as the smaller squad was unable to match up with the taller French on the post. Sticking to what works for them, the Serbian squad took the game out to beyond the arc and tied the contest at 12 with a minute to play. Dusan Bulut dropped in a deuce to give Serbia the lead for good as a free throw in the closing seconds gave them the Gold Medal on a 16-13 victory.
France had much better luck in the Mixed competition, using a substantial height advantage to get an early lead on the squad from Argentina. Unfortunately for the Argentinians, they got into foul trouble of a fatal proportion and had three players foul out giving the French the top spot on the podium via forfeit.
The competition also included individual events. Pirgit Puu of Estonia won the Skills Challenge; Stanislav Votroubek of the Czech Republic won the Shoot-Out; and the Dunk Contest was won by Deivi Ananguren with a dunk over a motorcycle.