New Zealand's men and China's women win FIBA 3x3 U18 Asia Cup 2018

CYBERJAYA (FIBA 3x3 U18 Asia Cup 2018) - New Zealand's men and China's women struck gold at the FIBA 3x3 U18 Asia Cup 2018 at the Gem-In Mall in Cyberjaya, Malaysia on September 6-9.

New Zealand's first appearance at the FIBA 3x3 U18 Asia Cup could not have gone better. Their men's team did not lose a single game in the tournament and bested reigning champions China in the final with a score of 22-17.

The MVP of the tournament Max De Geest topped all scorers in Malaysia with 52 points overall, including a 16-point outburst in the quarter final against Japan. Kangneng Liu (China) and  Gan-Erdene Gantsolmon (Mongolia) joined the Kiwi rising star on the team of the tournament.

China won silver and Mongolia earned bronze after beating Qatar in the 3rd place game (21-12).

In the women's category, China had a perfect 5-0 record and dominated New Zealand in the final (19-12).  Last year's champions Indonesia took home the bronze medal by beating Hong Kong  (15-11).

The MVP of the women's category was Xianglin Wu of China, who led her team in points and scored 9 in the final . Arielle  Williams (New Zealand) also made the team of tournament  after leading all scorers with 45 points and was joined by Tricia Aoijs from Indonesia.

In the shoot-out contest,  Matin Aghajanpour won gold for Iran, Cheng Li Pei  earned silver for Chinese Taipei and  Hee Heong Yee (Malaysia) struck bronze.

The FIBA 3x3 U18 Asia Cup 2018 brought together 33 teams from 19 countries.

Some of the best players at the event, including men's MVP  Max De Geest, will be back on the 3x3 court at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 7-17, 2018.

FINAL STANDINGS

MEN
1. New Zealand
2. China
3. Mongolia
4. Qatar
5. Japan
6. Kyrgyzstan
7. Jordan
8. Sri Lanka
9. Malaysia
10. Turkmenistan
11. Indonesia
12. Kazakhstan
13. Iran
14. South Korea
15. Hong Kong 
16. Chinese Taipei 
17.Uzbekistan
18. Guam 
19. Thailand 

WOMEN
1. China
2. New Zealand
3. Indonesia 
4. Hong Kong 
5. Japan
6. Iran
7. Sri Lanka
8. Malaysia
9: Chinese Taipei 
10. Kyrgyzstan
11. Mongolia
12. Kazakhstan
13.Uzbekistan
14. Thailand

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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 & Continental Cups. On June 9, 2017, 3x3 was added to the Olympic Program, starting from the Tokyo 2020 Games. 

For further information about 3x3, visit FIBA3x3.basketball, FIBA 3x3 accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Sina Weibo, Tencent, Twitter, Youku and YouTube or contact 3x3@fiba.com.