BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN representatives Riffa punched their tickets yesterday to the quarter-finals of the Ulaanbaatar stop in the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025.
Riffa won both their games in Pool B of the competition’s preliminary round, first beating Doha of Qatar 21-14 and then edging past Hangzhou of China 21-18.
Bahraini Mohammed Kowayed, who last week became the first-ever player from the kingdom to compete in the Fiba 3x3 World Tour, played in both contests.
He was originally not part of the team’s line-up for the event, but has replaced Caspar Augustijnen to join Dennis Donkor, Jonas Foerts, and Vic Van Oosterwyck on the half-court in the Mongolian capital.
Riffa finished first in their division and will be joined in the round of eight by Pool B runners-up Doha. There, the Bahraini outfit will take on Baskets Bonn from Germany, Doha will play Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy from Mongolia, Liman from Serbia will face Carolina from Puerto Rico, and Chongming from China will battle Marijampole Mantinga of Lithuania.
The quarters are scheduled to be played today, to be followed by the semi-finals and final.
Riffa are hitting the half-court for the second straight event on this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour. In their previous appearance in Vienna, Austria, where Kowayed made his debut, they came up just short of advancing past the group stage, losing both their games by a single point each time.
In their win yesterday against Doha, Riffa got off to a strong start as a Kowayed two-point basket gave them a 4-1 lead. After the Qataris fought back to tie the game at 5-all, Riffa went on a game-changing 10-1 run, sparked by six unanswered points from Van Oosterwyck and Donkor.
Riffa were in command from there, and did well to close the game out by reaching the 21-point target on a Foerts free-throw with two-and-a-half minutes still remaining on the clock.
Van Oosterwyck was Riffa’s leading scorer with 10 points, while Donkor had five, Foerts added four, and Kowayed scored two. Dejan Janjic led Doha with seven markers.
Riffa then followed up that impressive opening win with a come-from-behind victory against Hangzhou. They trailed 5-10 following a Filip Kaluderovic basket, but managed to claw their way back. A Foerts shot brought them to within 11-12, and later a Kowayed two-pointer tied the proceedings at 13-apiece.
Foerts then single-handedly lifted their team with five straight points to give them a 20-14 advantage, and after Hangzhou gave them a scare with four points without reply, Donkor made the game-winner with 44 seconds to play.
Donkor finished with 11 points while Foerts had seven, Kowayed two, and Van Oosterwyck one. Kaluderovic paced Hangzhou with nine points.
The Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025 has also already made stops in Japan, China, the Netherlands, France, and Austria. After Ulaanbaatar, competitions will also be held in Hong Kong; Edmonton, Canada; Lausanne, Switzerland; Debrecen, Hungary; Shanghai and Shenzhen in China; Macau; and Abu Dhabi, the UAE; before heading to Bahrain for the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025 finale on November 21 and 22.
There are also 20 lower-tier Challenger tournaments to be held throughout the season.
This year will be the first time ever that Bahrain will be staging the curtain-closer, which will crown this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour champions.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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