The women and men’s 3×3 national teams travelled to Nancy on Sunday, June 11th to participate in Open Plus 2000 Nancy in Parc de la Pépinière, part of FFBB’s 3×3 tour.
The men got off to a good tournament start against Brussels and won their first game of the day 21-13. The second game would prove to be much more difficult. In a tight and intense game our team was able to keep the upper hand against Team Bshop 21-19. Two wins in pool B signified a qualification for the quarterfinals.
After the lunchbreak, the men sent Lille Métropole 3×3 (Quarterfinals) and Antwerp (Semifinals) home with clear 19-14 and 22-12 victories. In the final, played on Terrain central Sylvain Lautié, the men were unfortunately not able to show their best performance. Ermont 3×3 got off to a hot start from outside the arc from which our team would never really recover. In the end, the scoreboard showed 21-16, and signified a second-place finish. Despite the slightly disappointed ending of the tournament, it was still a good overall performance over the entire day.
Tournament team:
Victor Stein, Vic Heuschling, Scott Morton, Christophe Laures
The women had to play three pool games but had no problems qualifying for the semi-finals by beating Cint Out (21-9), Les Lilleuses (15-7) and Team Silvange (21-7). In the semi-finals, they were able to beat NK Camp-United Maroc 18-8.
The final against R.I.P FAM would become a real nailbiter with an extremely exciting finish. Despite being down more than four points at some point, the women stayed in the game and did not let the opponent pull away. At the end of the regular playing time, the shot clock showed 0.8 seconds, Luxembourg ball. Bridget Yoerger launched the ball over her opponent from behind the arc towards the hoop and scored to take her team to overtime in a game that seemed already lost. In overtime, our team came from behind once again to win the final 17-16 with a put-back basket by Bridget Yoerger. A finals performance that would later bring her the MVP trophy of the tournament.
Tournament team:
Cathy Schmit, Michelle Dittgen, Nadia Mossong, Bridget Yoerger
Not only did our teams perform at Open Plus 2000 Nancy, but our FIBA 3×3 Referees Cathy Donckel and Michail Vanglovskij, were part of the referee team and able to get some more valuable 3×3 experience.
