As we promised, the crowd enjoyed the spectacle during the previous weekend. Antwerp made another triumph on the wings of victory in Challenger in Bordeaux. The Belgian team had five consecutive wins in the tournament and now goes to the rest of the season with an enormous boost of confidence.
There were eight teams left in the tournament after the first day and games in the group phase. Those teams were Antwerp, Ulaanbaatar, Vienna, Omaha, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Fribourg, and Dusseldorf.
Quarterfinals, semifinals, and final game were played on Sunday, 17th July.
Antwerp beat Ulaanbaatar with 21-9 in the first quarterfinal. Vienna pulled out a 22-12 victory over Omaha. Amsterdam won against Utrecht with 20-16 in Netherlands’ clash. In the last quarterfinal, Fribourg defeated Dusseldorf with 22-15.
Antwerp pulled out a 17-13 victory over Vienna in the first semifinal. Fribourg defeated Amsterdam with 17-6.
The final game offered spectators everything they could desire in their wildest dreams. Fribourg, the biggest surprise of Pristina’s challenger, was leading 6-0 and 13-8. Thibaut Vervoort scored whenever it was necessary and played a vital role in the Antwerp chase of Fribourg. The game went into thrilling culmination which ended with a tied score, 16-16. The game went to overtime where Thibaut assisted his teammate Nick Celis for a dramatic 18-17 win and another title for the Belgians.
Vervoort aka “Must see TV” was literally on fire as he finished the tournament with 46 points from 5 games. Nick Celis, the scorer of the decisive point in the tournament, scored 27 points and contributed a lot to Antwerp’s success. With two won challengers in a row, the Belgian team can now confirm that they are aiming for winning the Next Masters in Prague.
Fribourg, the runner-up of Pristina Challenger, had a fantastic duo throughout five fixtures. Jonathan Kazadi had on his account 31 points, while Jonathan Dubas showed superiority with his 40 points and 15 rebounds. It seems the basketball 3×3 audience will see danger in the Swiss team and that they will be a threat for favorites in the upcoming period.
Vice-champion Fribourg and third-placed Amsterdam qualified for the Debrecen Masters which will be held on August 27-28, 2022. The three best teams in Pristina Challenger joined Ub Huishan NE, Liman Huishan NE, and Princeton as the teams that will participate in the fifth Masters of the World Tour in Hungary.
source: fiba.basketball
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