BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN representatives Riffa barged into the knockouts of Shenzhen Masters in China yesterday, held as part of this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
Riffa earned their place amongst the tournament’s elite eight after winning both their contests in Pool B of the preliminary round. They first edged past Amsterdam Rabobank from the Netherlands 21-19 and then outplayed Valencia from Spain 21-14.
They thus finished atop their division unbeaten and head into today’s quarter-finals, where they will face off with Vienna from Austria, who finished as runners-up in Pool D.
In the other match-ups in the last eight, Partizan from Serbia go up against Raudondvaris Hoptrans from Lithuania, Samobor from Croatia face off with Amsterdam, and Toulouse from France against take on Ub from Serbia.
Riffa are competing in the Chinese competition with their quartet of Belgian nationals Dennis Donkor, Jonas Foerts, and Vic van Oosterwyck, along with Serbian Milos Antic.
In their opening victory yesterday against their Dutch rivals, Riffa faced an early 5-9 deficit but van Oosterwyck connected from long range to bring them back to within two. He later scored once more to tie it at 12-all, and the two teams traded baskets until Adriaan Van Tilborg scored for Amsterdam to level the proceedings at 18-apiece with just over a minute remaining. Then, after a van Oosterwyck two-pointer and a Maarten Bouwknecht shot made it 20-19 for Riffa, Foerts sealed their victory from the charity stripe.
Van Oosterwyck had seven points to pace the Bahraini outfit while Antic added six, Foerts five, and Donkor three. Bouwknecht led Amsterdam with eight points.
In their next assignment against Valencia, Donkor sparked a game-changing run with a two-pointer to break a 13-all deadlock.
He was on fire from the perimeter, burying three successive baskets from beyond the arc to put Riffa on the brink of the win. Donkor was then fouled with over two minutes till to play, and he sank the clinching free-throw that earned them the 21-point target.
Donkor was red hot, finishing with 14 points, while Foerts and Antic scored three apiece, with van Oosterwyck contributing one point. Javier Herrero led the Spaniards with eight markers.
Today’s quarter-finals are scheduled to get underway at 9.30am, Bahrain time. The semis and final will follow later in the day.
Each of the top seven teams on the final rankings will come away with prize money from Shenzhen.
The champions will pocket $40,000, the runners-up get $30,000, while third place win $22,000. From fourth through seventh, the prizes are $16,000, $10,000, $8,000, and $6,000, respectively.
The Fiba 3x3 World Tour is the premier street basketball series under the International Basketball Federation (Fiba). Bahrain will then feature on the calendar with the season’s curtain-closing event on November 21 and 22, entitled the Manama Final.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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