Recap: Edmonton at the 3x3 Ljubljana Challenger
The capital of Slovenia played host to the latest 3x3 World Tour tournament, the Ljubljana Challenger, where Edmonton put in an appearance.
Places were up for grabs in the Debrecen Masters, which Edmonton had already qualified for, so for them the pressure was off. The teams making up the Ljubljana Challenger was very strong, though, including Piran, Amsterdam, Princeton, as well as a lot of upstart teams ready to cause an upset. This was not going to be an easy tournament.
Edmonton opened against qualifiers Maribor, where Kenny Otieno led the scoring and Kyle Landry had a perfect game, making all of his attempts at basket, in an impressive and dominant opening display against the home team, winning 21-13.
Their next opponents, Vrbas, were a completely different story. Despite a good showing from Jordan Jensen-Whyte, the Serbian side dominated in the paint, while Marko Brankovic also adding plenty of points from outside the arc. He finished with eight points as Vrbas won the game and the pool with a final scoreline of 21-15.
Still, Edmonton had done enough to advance to day two, where they would be taking on the surprise winners of Pool B, Jeddah, who were so far undefeated in Ljubljana after wins over Amsterdam and Kranj.
In the quarter final, Edmonton were in control from close range, where they finished over 50%. Jeddah, however, were the same from beyond the arc, where they inflicted plenty of damage on their opponents. Szymon Rduch and Nemanja Draskovic between them had seventeen points, combining to create a force Edmonton could not stop. The quarter finals were as far as they could go in this tournament, losing to Jeddah 21-15.
Jeddah took only one step more in Ljubljana, losing to Piran by one point in the semi finals. The Slovenian team had made it to the final after finishing in second to Sakiai in Pool A, but convincingly beating Princeton in their quarter final.
Meanwhile, Edmonton’s pool stage Vrbas went on to score a big victory over Amsterdam in the quarter finals and a one-point semi final win over Gdansk to earn their final spot against Piran.
In the final Ivan Popovic was unstoppable, scoring eleven points, and Vrbas were completely in the driver’s seat, as they broke home fans hearts by defeating their Slovenian opponents 21-11 in the final to take the Challenger title.
While nothing was really at stake for Edmonton, it was still disappointing to see them come up short, but many big teams did as well in what was a surprisingly competitive field. Kyle Landry was the leading scorer for the team in Ljubljana with 6.3 points per game, while Kenny Otieno led the defence with an average of 4.0 rebounds.
Picture: FIBA.com
