BASKETBALL – Bahrain representatives Seef powered yesterday into the quarter-finals of the Lion City Challenger 2026 in Singapore – an event that is part of this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
The kingdom’s outfit split their two games in Pool A of the preliminary round to earn their spot in the last eight.
They first suffered a narrow 20-21 defeat to Antwerp from Belgium, the team formerly flying the kingdom’s flag as Riffa, but then bounced back to outclass home side Singapore 20-14.
The Belgians were also winners against the Singaporeans yesterday, dominating their contest 21-12.
Seef – featuring the quartet of Bogdan Dragovic, Austin Ajukwa, Uros Ilic, and Isa Jasim in the event – next face off with Pool C winners Shibuya from Japan in the elite eight.
The Japanese won both their games against Princeton from the US and London from Britain.
In the other quarter-final match-ups, Antwerp take on Princeton, Valencia Basket from Spain clash with Toronto from Canada, and Bordeaux from France go up against Taipei WanBao from Chinese Taipei.
The quarters are to be played today from 11.20am, Bahrain time. They will be followed by the semis and then the title-decider, set for 3pm, also Bahrain.
In Seef’s loss against Antwerp in their opener, they battled back from as many as six points down with only two-and-a-half minutes to play and the Belgians already on the brink of reaching the 21-point target.
Dennis Donkor buried a two-pointer that made it 20-14, but in a stunning turn of events, Seef rallied with six straight points – sparked by a Dragovic basket from beyond the arc – to tie it at 20-apiece with 52 seconds to go.
Dragovic and Ajukwa scored three points each in their late surge.
Antwerp were awarded a free-throw with 25 seconds left, however, and Jonas Foerts converted to give his team the win.
Ajukwa led the Bahrainis with eight points while Dragovic scored seven and Ilic five. Donkor paced Antwerp with 10 points while Caspar Augustijnen had six.
In their next outing, Seef took control after breaking a 4-4 deadlock and did enough to stay ahead and close out the win.
Ilic was their top man in the contest with 12 points, while Ajukwa contributed five, Jasim two, and Dragovic one.
Mohamed Zahid had five points for Singapore while Xu Duanyang added four.
The Lion City Challenger is the first-ever edition of the tournament.
It also acts as a qualifier for the Fiba 3x3 World Tour Lausanne Masters, scheduled for August 14 and 15 in Switzerland.
The top three teams will punch their tickets to the meeting, which is the top-tier level of Fiba 3x3 action.
Bahrain had two teams competing in last year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour, including Seef and Riffa.
Dragovic was also a part of the Seef roster then.
Later this year, Bahrain will once again be delighting basketball fans with the third edition of the Manama Masters, scheduled for November 20 and 21.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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