2017 3x3 World Tour: Utsunomiya Masters Report
At the steps of the Futaarayama Shrine stood a half-court, and played on that court was some high-quality, hotly contested, unpredictable and exciting basketball at the 2017 Utsunomiya Masters, the second stop on this year's 3x3 World Tour.
Japan has always been one of the more popular World Tour venues, and this year was no exception. The city's basketball-loving population bared the adverse weather and were treated to two days of the 3x3 game being played at high quality 3x3.
Picture: FIBA.com
Day one opened with a shock result: Ljubljana were outdone by the strong defence and long-range shooting of Ulaanbaatar, the first Mongolian team to compete in the 3x3 World Tour. The Mongolians' passing and shooting skills kept them in good stead in their second game against the tournament's only Japanese contingent, Okayama. In a game where there was rarely a point between the teams, Ulaanbaatar tied things up with 22 seconds to go, but Devaughn Washington was fouled on a jump shot, and made one of the subsequent foul shots. With 11 seconds left, Ulaanbaatar missed their final shot of the game, Okayama collected the rebound and secured the win.
With elimination threatening for both teams in the final game, Okayama went on an early scoring run, to which Ljubljana struck back at the game's mid-point. Buoyed by the home support, Okayama’s shooting and great inside play from Gary Hamilton helped them to a hard-won 14-12 victory. Ljubljana, champions in Saskatoon, were eliminated at the pool stage winless.
Novi Sad AlWadha took to the floor for the day’s second game, comfortably dispatching Seoul 21 points to 12. In their next game, Seoul fought hard for survival against St Petersburg, but they gave away too many fouls and the Russian team’s energy and close-range play - Maksim Zimarin made an impossible shot from almost behind the backboard - would see Seoul out from Utsunomiya.
In the final game of Pool B, St Petersburg led 3-1 after the first minute of play but let Novi Sad force them into making too many mistakes, which soon saw the World Tour giants getting on top. St Petersburg gave everything they had - and matched Novi Sad on some shots - but five two-point shots from Dusan Bulut would give Novi Sad an unassailable lead, and a final floating shot from Bulut with less than 1:30 on the clock ended the game in the Serbians' favour.
Two eye-catching teams emerged from Pool C: Piran from Slovenia and Krakow of Poland, who both saw out Auckland. Against Krakow, great play from Auckland’s Anthony Jones on both ends of the floor gave the Polish an early scare, but the New Zealanders were ultimately no match for Krakow’s big physicality and scoring. Losing their second game of the day, Auckland were eliminated.
When the two remaining sides met, Krakow had four almost instantly but Piran took control of the game with superb shooting from the outside, where 8 of their total points came from. A highly physical game, with both teams doing well to mark their opponents and not allow easy shots, Krakow came back into the game late, only for it to be won by Piran with a foul shot 2.4 seconds from time.
Pool D came down to a clash between two Serbian sides, Zemun and Liman, who both dispatched Chinese Taipei side Hsinchu - despite a good show from Han Chun Kai, Hsinchu's tournament naiveté showed. The Zemun-Liman game proved to be tight and with many lead changes, coming down to each team’s long-distance shooters and those best at drawing fouls, as neither team were willing to let up on defence.
Zemun were on top for most of the way, but Liman looked to have clinched it with two minutes to go. Bogdan Dragovic’s two-point shot then tied the game at 19 apiece, and no sooner had he hit his first shot did he pick up the ball again, wrong-foot his defender and score from long range for a dramatic end to the game. Zemun advanced as winners of the pool.
Liman would open the knockout round on Day Two against crowd favourites Okayama. A hard-fought game to begin with, Liman broke away at the mid-point, punishing Okayama for their mistakes and displaying superior shooting over the Japanese side. Piran then took on St Petersburg: the Slovenian team had to contain Ilya Alexandrov, but were the far better side in the game. They ran out to a nine-point scoring run at the game's mid-point, while holding St Petersburg to just three. The final score would be the biggest gap at Utsunomiya, Piran taking it 22-9.
Next up, Krakow took the lead against Novi Sad, but the Serbians responded with deadly long-range shooting. Michael Hicks was highly impressive for Krakow, who were merciless on Novi Sad's defence, but ultimately the Polish team could not get enough of their shots to drop. Finally, despite their big difference in ranking, Zemun and Ulaanbaatar were evenly matched in their quarter-final. Ulaanbaatar made every attempt at basket and contested every loose ball. Their tenacity and perseverance saw them weather Zemun, winning it at the end by 13 points to 10.
In their semi-final matchup, both Liman and Piran worked hard to prevent easy baskets, though a fair few slipped through the cracks. Piran's Gasper Ovnik and Stefan Stojacic of Liman were both getting it done for their respective sides with a flurry of two-point shots. Every time Piran looked to be building, Liman struck back, but finally a decisive five-point run from Piran with 2:30 to go saw them close out the game quickly and efficiently, with Ovnik making the final shot to take his team into the final.
Ulaanbaatar had bested plenty of big teams to reach the semi finals - could the fairy tale continue against Novi Sad? As the game started they made clear they weren't going to let Novi Sad intimidate them, but the Serbians monopolised the ball, barely letting the Mongolians touch it. Ulaanbaatar did well to go the full distance, but were undone by Novi Sad's trademark bulldozer offensive attack. A heroic effort from Ulaanbaatar, but not the ending they would have hoped for.
Piran drew first blood in the final, and they used Novi Sad's tough, close-range offence against them to lead 3-1 after two minutes of play. Shortly after, Novi Sad took the lead and went on a run of high-pressure defence and close-range field goals.
Anze Srebovt gave Piran back the lead later on, only for Novi Sad to immediately take it back. In the last 1:40 Piran re-took the lead twice, and on both occasions Novi Sad equalised. Gasper Ovnik missed the last shot of the game, and with the scores tied at 15, it went to sudden death.
After both teams' outside shooters couldn't finish the game, Dusan Bulut scored the first basket of overtime, followed by a layup from Simon Finzgar for Piran. Next basket would win. After a missed attempt from Bulut, Simon Finzar grabbed the rebound and lined it up for the final shot, only to be stripped by Marko Savic. Bulut leaped for the loose ball, got it by the ends of his fingers and handed it off to Savic, who had an easy path to the basket and layed it up to give Novi Sad a dramatic final victory in Utsunomiya.
While the dunk contest, there were plenty of quality moves from all competitors, in the end coming down to a straight duel between Justin Darlington and Arek Przybylski.
The best shots, blocks and moves all make up the Top 5 moves of the tournament.
After another thrilling stop, the World Tour moves on to the Czech Republic for the Prague Masters in just a week's time. Novi Sad AlWadha, Ljubljana, Krakow and Zemun will again be competing, as will Saskatoon and Humpolec from the previous edition. Head to the official website to find out more.
