DOHA: Novi Sad Al Wahda of UAE retained the FIBA 3x3 All Stars championship, after beating rivals Saskatoon of Canada 21-14 in the final here on Friday night.
Just one day after their leader Dusan Domovic Bulut received the World’s No. 1 player trophy at the FIBA 3x3 Awards, Novi Sad Al Wahda continued their domination of the 3x3 basketball scene.
For the second consecutive year, the team won both the FIBA 3x3 World Tour and the FIBA 3x3 All Stars over the same season.
Bulut ended the event as top scorer with 27 points in 4 games and was named MVP. He was instrumental in the title game, scoring 6 points including the winning free throw. His team-mate Marko Savic was the final top scorer with 8 points while sharp-shooter Dejan Majstorovic added 7 points.
It was the third straight year Saskatoon lose against Novi Sad Al Wahda at a top 3x3 event. O’Neil Gordon scored 5 points in the final and dunking machine Michael Lieffers contributed 4.
The FIBA 3x3 All Stars brings together all the number ones in the 3x3 Individual World Ranking from all around the world.
The number one player in Europe, in the Americas, in Qatar, in the rest of the world together with the number one winners at the FIBA 3x3 World Tour and the number one winners at the FISU 3x3 World University League were brought together for the third edition of the FIBA 3x3 All Stars, which jammed the Al Gharafa Sports Complex.
In the individual competitions, Team Americas Justin ‘Jus Fly’ Darlington of Canada and Porter ‘What’s Gravity!?’ Maberry of USA defeated Team Europe Kristaps Dargais of Latvia and Rafal ‘Lipek’ Lipinski of Poland in the QBF Dunk Contest.
Local favourite Boney Watson of Doha) was on fire from outside the arc and won the QBF Shoot-Out Contest.
On Thursday the best 3x3 basketball players, organisers and personalities were rewarded at the inaugural edition of the FIBA 3x3 Awards, presented by the Qatar Basketball Federation (QBF). QBF President Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahaman Al Thani was presented the Outstanding Contribution award.
Under his leadership, Qatar became the host of the FIBA 3x3 All Stars, established a nation-wide 3x3 programme and built a team, that won the 2014 FIBA 3x3 World Championships.
Dusan Domovic Bulut (Serbia) received the World’s #1 player award after leading the FIBA 3x3 Individual World Ranking at the end of the season. The list of decorated players also included Patricia Vicente (Andorra, World’s #1 Player - Women), Nina Aho (Hungary, World’s #1 Player - U18 Women) and Nedim Muslic (Qatar, World’s #1 Player - U18 Men). Last but not least, Terrence Romeo (Philippines) was named the most spectacular player of the year by the fans following a social media contest held on all FIBA 3x3 social media accounts.
In the organisers’ categories, the Brazil Basketball Federation (CBB) won the Best Performing Federation award after leading the FIBA 3x3 Federation Ranking at the end of the season, while the Netherlands Basketball Federation (NBB) received the award for the Most Active Federation after organizing more than 3,000 games involving over 4,000 players in 2015.
The Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF) took home the Best CSR Project award for their social activities around 3x3. Hungarian private promoter B33 received the Most Valuable Promoter award for attracting over 5,000 players to their 3x3 tournaments over the year.
The Peninsula
