BASKETBALL – Bahrain representatives Riffa booked their place yesterday in the quarter-finals of the Jakarta Challenger 2025 in Indonesia, held as part of this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
Riffa won one of their two games in Pool B of the competition’s preliminary round – first beating home side South Jakarta Inaspro 21-14 but then losing to Barcelona of Spain 15-21.
They finished second in their division behind the top-placed Spaniards, who also made it through to the last eight. There, Riffa will take on Hangzhou of China, who won both their games yesterday to finish first in Pool D. Their contest is scheduled for 12.35pm today, Bahrain time.
Riffa will be battling to claim a place in the semi-finals and then eventually the final, both of which will be held later in the day.
In other quarters fixtures, Miami from the US will face Marijampole Mantinga from Lithuania, Barcelona will take on Utrecht from the Netherlands, and Chongming from China will play Lugano from Switzerland.
Riffa are competing in Jakarta with a quartet that includes Dennis Donkor, Jonas Foerts, Vic Van Oosterwyck, and Andrej Cuyvers. The meeting acts as a qualifier for the higher-tier Lausanne Masters, scheduled to take place next month in Switzerland.
In their victory against South Jakarta, Riffa took immediate control following a Donkor two-pointer that made it 4-2. Two Foerts free-throws then helped them extend their lead to 14-7, and then after the Indonesians got to within 14-19, baskets from Foerts and Van Oosterwyck helped Riffa reach the 21-point target with more than two-and-a-half minutes still to play.
Cuyvers was their leading scorer in the game with nine points. Foerts added eight, and Donkor and Van Oosterwyck finished with two points apiece.
Ebrahim Lopez Enguio paced South Jakarta with eight markers in the loss.
In their defeat to Barcelona, Riffa battled ahead 10-8 on a Donkor basket from beyond the arc. But after another Donkor effort that made it 11-10, their rivals went on a game-changing run of eight unanswered points. Riffa could not recover and although they got to within five, Barcelona closed the game out with a minute left on the game clock.
Donkor had 10 points in the contest while Cuyvers scored three and Foerts two, while Van Oosterwyck was scoreless.
Nil Bria and Jaume Zanca had eight points each to lead Barcelona.
The champions in Jakarta are set to come away with $20,000 in prize money. The runners-up will pocket $15,000, the third-placers $11,000, while the team ranked fourth overall will win $8,000 and fifth $6,000.
The meeting is one of 20 Challenger events on the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025. Masters competitions have already taken place in Japan, China, the Netherlands, France, Austria, and Mongolia, and Hong Kong, with others set to be held in Canada, Switzerland, Hungary, China, Macau, and the UAE before heading to Bahrain for the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025 finale, scheduled for November 21 and 22.
The kingdom currently has two teams competing in the premier street basketball series, under the banner of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba), with Seef being the other.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))