Belgium's men and USA's women win FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup 2017

CHENGDU (FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup 2017) - Belgium's men and USA's women struck gold in the sixth edition of the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup in Chengdu, China on June 28 - July 2 2017.

Just one year after an unexpected trip to the final of the FIBA 3x3 U18 Europe Cup, Belgium enjoyed a perfect 7-0 record and turned silver into gold in front of the massive Global Center, the largest building on the planet.

The athletic team made multiple appearances in the highlight reels and kept every team under 15 points.

In an all-Benelux final against the Netherlands, Noah Fogang Tchendjou topped all scorers with 6 points, including back-to-back daggers from outside the arc while the game was still undecided.

Tournament MVP Ayoub Nouhi added 5 points and fellow member of the Team of the Tournament Vincent Peeters contributed 4 points, including the play of the game: a slick crossover followed by a monster jam.

After winning 6 straight games, the lights turned to orange for the Netherlands in the final as sharpshooter Boyd Van der Vuurst De Vries was limited to just 5 points.

It was the second silver medal in two weeks for the Netherlands, following the Flying Dutchmen’s incredible run at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup.

Slovenia won bronze in a nail-biter against New Zealand (21-17). Just a few hours after hitting a game-winner in overtime against Ukraine in the quarter-finals, tournament top scorer Samo Gabersek did it again in the bronze-medal game, which earned him a spot on the Team of the Tournament.

In the women's category, USA ended a 4-year gold-winning drought by dominating Czech Republic (21-14) in the final.

Janelle Bailey was unstoppable in the middle in the title game, scoring a whopping 11 points that propelled her on top of the scoring charts.

Bailey was joined on the Team of the Tournament by team-mate and MVP Aquira DeCosta, who finished 4th overall in scoring and wowed the crowd with her signature shammgod.

Despite being limited to just 4 points in the final, Czech Republic’s Simona Ruzkova was also added to the Team of the Tournament.

Just like the Netherlands’ men, Czech Republic’s women enjoyed their best ever performance in the competition on the year the federation joined the FIBA 3x3 Fast Track, an ambitious 3x3 development program created by FIBA to identify and train the future 3x3 Olympians.

Russia won bronze after beating Hungary in defensive-minded game (12-8).

Nine more medals were handed out in the individual contests.

Calvin Poulina struck gold for the Netherlands in the Shoot-Out Contest. Ukraine's Vitaliy Shorstkiy earned silver while Japan's Maaya Inoue collected bronze.

Dahlia Monteiro brought Switzerland a gold medal in the skills contest after beating Argentina’s Josefina Torruella in the final. After gold in the team competition, Aquira DeCosta (USA) added bronze in the skills contest.

New FIBA 3x3 U18 World Champ Vincent Peeters (Belgium) did even better as he went double-gold after dominating the dunk contest, where the Philippines’ Florencio Serrano and Slovenia’s Matej Susec struck silver and bronze respectively.

Final standings of the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup 2017

Men
1. Belgium
2. Netherlands
3. Slovenia
4. New Zealand
5. Ukraine
6. Hungary
7. Philippines
8. Romania
9. China
10. Israel
11. Uganda
12. Qatar
13. Georgia
14. Poland
15. Indonesia
16. Turkey
17. Bahrain
18. Turkmenistan
19. South Korea
20. Jordan

Women
1. USA
2. Czech Republic
3. Russia
4. Hungary
5. Spain
6. France
7. China
8. Germany
9. Italy
10. Netherlands
11. Australia
12. Kazakhstan
13. Japan
14. Andorra
15. Argentina
16. Egypt
17. Venezuela
18. Switzerland
19. Sri Lanka
20. Singapore

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ABOUT FIBA 3x3

Exciting, urban and innovative, 3x3 is inspired by several forms of streetball played worldwide and is considered the world’s number one urban team sport. Steered by FIBA, games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court.

It was played successfully for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and since then has benefited from the launch of a yearly city-based FIBA 3x3 World Tour (www.fiba.basketball/3x3worldtour) and national-team FIBA 3x3 World Cup.

On June 9 2017, 3x3 was addded to the Olympic Program, starting from the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Nike is FIBA 3x3's Founding Partner.

FIBA 3x3 events are played on Sport Court's floors with Schelde backstops and benefit from Wilson's innovative and specially-made ball for 3x3. 

For further information about 3x3, visit fiba3x3.com, FIBA 3x3 accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube or contact 3x3@fiba.com.