Toronto Show Spirit at Macau Masters - 3x3 Full Report
For the first time on the 2023 3x3 World Tour, Toronto were competing in a Masters tournament and had a chance to showcase their skills to a much bigger audience than they had done so before.
The four-piece squad who made up the team last time out in Ulaanbaatar touched down on the small island in the South China Sea as one of the lowest-ranked teams to enter the tournament. However they had avoided the qualifying draw, but still had a long road ahead of them with fierce opposition to face right away.
Top ten-ranked Riga were off to an early lead in theirs and Toronto's first pool game, but the Canadians kept it close and Nemanja Mitrovic then put them in front from beyond the line. Continuing to find open looks in the field, Toronto maintained a slender lead over Riga until Edgar Krumins found a gap in the perimeter and put the Latvians back in front.
Toronto were not about to let the game get away from them and Bikramjit Gill tied the scores at 19 apiece, the game now on a knife-edge and poised to go either way. It took just seconds for the result to be decided though, with Miroslav Pasajlic hitting from the line to bring the game to an end with Riga winners by two.
This loss meant survival for Toronto meant having to win over Chinese team Futian, who had also suffered a loss to Riga and were too facing elimination from Macau. With the stakes high on both ends, Tramar Sutherland opened the scoring but Futian went on a 4-0 run but their lead was short-lived, as Mitrovic and Alex Johnson both hit twos and Toronto were now in front.
Hanyu Guo and Thibaut Vervoot both led Futian, who kept it a one-point game throughout the latter phases of play until Guo skied a shot from beyond the arc which put his team back in the lead. With seconds left Gill drew a foul and hit two from the stripe, giving Toronto the little lift they need to stay in Macau.
Toronto were back in action on day two and awaiting them were the tour's number one team, Ub, who opened the quarter final match-up with four points unanswered. Toronto were able to find some open looks in the paint, but the Serbians were finding more.
After a 7-0 run from Ub Toronto trailed by thirteen with a third of the game still to go. Gill added one last bucket for his team, but four more points in just under a minute and Ub advanced, ending Toronto's run in Macau. There was some small consolation for the team in this loss, as they could exit the tournament saying they were knocked out by the only unbeaten team.
Despite the loss, Toronto showed great spirit in a highly contested and competitive field in this tournament. They showed great grit and determination to hold Riga to a late tie and produced when they needed to in signalling there is far more to come from this team on the World Tour.
The next masters tournament will be held in Edmonton on the last weekend of July. Until then, find out more about the Macau Masters by following this link to the official FIBA 3x3 website.
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