Mugunghwa Challenger - 3x3 World Tour Report

FIBA.com

With the 2024 3x3 season starting to wind down, places on the World Tour are becoming more and more coveted. Teams then were turning their attention to the Korean capital and the Mugunghwa Challenger, where places in next month's Shenzhen Masters were up for grabs for the best among the twenty teams competing in the tournament.

The two days began with the qualifying draw, where both Taipei and Zamboanga made short work of Indian team Siliguri. When they faced off against each other Jordan Bartlett powered the Filipino team into Pool C with a game-high 13 points and Zamboanga blew past Taipei.

Pool C began with Zamboanga being handed a heavy loss by Latvian team Kandava, who were then outplayed by German team St. Pauli, who in turn sent Zamboanga packing with a final 21-8 blowout. St Pauli topped the pool with Kandava sneaking through in second place.

In the other qualifying draw, home team Yesan did not last long at the hands of Shinagawa and Nantou, and the Japanese team showed Nantou no mercy with a final 21-5 win. They went on to meet compatriots Utsonomiya in Pool D, where there was little to choose between them in a game that went down to the final seconds.

A game down and short-handed, Utsonomiya then fought tooth and nail to stay alive in Mugunghwa, but NY Harlem led their match-up from start to finish. NY Harlem put Pool D to bed with a final 22-16 win over Utsonomiya, which saw them through as pool winners, Shinagawa runners-up and Utsonomiya out.

Vienna began their campaign with a strong showing on both ends over Sagamihara, Enis Mutari shutting out the first Viennese opponents with eleven total rebounds. With another collected effort against French team Ermont, the Austrians put together a seven-point win and made it through to the knockout round, leaving their two vanquished teams to duke it out for the runners-up spot.

In the final Pool A fixture, Sagamihara’s energetic start saw them lead by five, but Ermont were quick to close the gap and the scores were tied ahead of the last minute, where Harve Jean-Pierre had the last of his 12 points in the contest to see out the win and Sagamihara out of the tournament.

Meanwhile, with Malik Hluchoweckyj ‘s offence and with tough defence from Westher Molteni, Lausanne saw off both Shanghai and Wuxi to cruise through Pool B as winners. Wuxi were without their new star signing DeMarcus Cousins, but Haorang Huang stepped up and his eleven points lifted the team over Shanghai.

After a day of high excitement in Seoul, the heat turned up on day two, the decisive end of the tournament.

Led by Fabian Geissmann with fifteen points, St. Pauli easily saw off Ermont in their quarter final game 21 points to 11, while Lausanne and Shinagawa's clash was a far more unpredictable affair. After a strong start from Lausanne, Shinagawa were tenacious from all distances to keep themselves in the contest, but in the end the height and strength advantage of the Swiss prevailed.

St Pauli and Lausanne then met in the semi-finals, where they could not untangle themselves from one another until the German team put up eight points unanswered. With St. Pauli's score now unobtainable for Lausanne, a final two from Fabian Geissmann sealed the final result with St. Pauli into the final.

On the other end of the bracket, NY Harlem made short work of Wuxi behind twelve from Dominique Jones, while Enis Murati and Francis Lacis were both leading the charge for Vienna and Kandava respectively, but superior offence from the latter coupled with stronger defence from his team saw the Latvians see off Vienna 21-17.

Kanadava and NY Harlem faced off for a place in the final, where a high-intensity effort both in and outside the arc from the Americans kept the Latvians at bay, despite 10 points and eight total rebounds from Francis Lacis.

It all came down to NY Harlem and St Pauli for total glory in Korea. The final began with an early lead for NY Harlem, six without reply, seven point lead, St Pauli then had a 7-0 run of their own to level the scores, followed by four more to go into the lead.

Kiandi Brutus tried to keep NY Harlem alive from beyond the arc, however the team went cold in the last two minutes. With six more points in the last two minutes, St. Pauli won the game 21-17, winning the challenger title and a guaranteed place in the Shenzhen Masters.

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