Toronto at the 3x3 Deqing Huzhou Challenger - Full Report
The FIBA 3x3 World Tour was back in China for the second challenger tournament of 2023. Some of the very best teams on tour touched down in Deqing county in the eastern prefecture of Huzhou, where places on July's Edmonton Masters were up for grabs.
Toronto were one of the teams in the fray over two days in China, made up of team regulars Bikramjit Gill, Nemanja Mitrovic and Alex Johnson, who this time were joined by Dele Ogundokun, alum of the McGill Marauders. The team began the two-day tournament in the pool stage, with their first opponents being Japanese team Saitama, who came through the qualifying phase.
Danilo Matovic put the first three points on the board for Saitama, putting Toronto on the back foot before they closed the gap from close range, only for Ryo Ozawa picking up were his team mate left off, putting them up 9-4 after three minutes.
In response the Canadians caught fire from long range; after five in a row from Mitrovic, with Gill creating scoring chances for him and the rest of the team, Toronto had the lead. Saitama attempted a late fight back but they were held off by Toronto in the final stretch, which saw them come away with the win 19-14.
The next game against Partizan was a different story: the Serbians came out firing and despite Gill trying to lead his team in keeping it close, Partizan held them to ten points unanswered after just half the time had elapsed.
Toronto attempted to instigate something, but by then the writing was on the wall. Led by Ivan Popovic with 13 points, Partizan blew out Toronto 21-7; however the earlier victory against Saitama was enough to see them through to day two.
Their quarter final opponents would be the second team from Japan they would face in Deqing, surprise pool C winners Utsonomiya. When their face-off began on Saturday, Toronto's two-point shooting led by Mitrovic saw them disentangle themselves from Utsunomiya early on, with Johnson building their lead up to nine.
With two miutes left on the clock Marko Milakovic caught fire and went on an 8-1 lead to make it a single-possession game in the closing seconds. The game started to look dicier, but Johnson and Mitrovic put the game to bed with the final score 20-15 in Toronto's favour.
Now all standing between Toronto and the final were 3x3 titans Liman, so far undefeated in China, their biggest task in Deqing yet. Toronto fell behind early on but Gill and Ogundokun were keeping it close, until Liman's Stefan Kojic kept connecting from all over the floor, which saw Liman lead Toronto by seven.
Toronto didn't give up but Liman were fully in control of the game, monopolizing possession and dominating possession in what would be the final stretch. Ning Zhang putting the game to bed with the game-winning bucket, the final score 21-12 to Liman. They went on to contest the final, but were defeated by Dusseldorf by four points.
Toronto may have fell short of the top spot in Deqing-Huzhou, but they are still making all the steps in the right direction at still an early stage of the 2023 World Tour, with plenty of time for them to make their mark on the season.
Comments