FIBA 3-on-3 @ Youth Olympic Games – Final Day (Girls’ Finals)
SINGAPORE (Youth Olympic Games) - 再见！ A quick hello and a long good-bye from Singapore, as the Youth Olympic Games are soon to be over. We witnessed some thrilling and action-packed games here at the venue, and the girls really impressed a lot of fans here by displaying great skills, sportsmanship and love for the game of basketball. All the best to my ...
SINGAPORE (Youth Olympic Games) - 再见！
A quick hello and a long good-bye from Singapore, as the Youth Olympic Games are soon to be over. We witnessed some thrilling and action-packed games here at the venue, and the girls really impressed a lot of fans here by displaying great skills, sportsmanship and love for the game of basketball. All the best to my colleagues from world of FIBA, see you all soon!
Finals
3rd Place Final
In the clash between the neighboring countries for the bronze medal, the major factor was confidence as Briyona Canty displayed perfectly while being on the court. She scored the first three points and also the last four points in this game and gave the U.S. the well-deserved third place in Singapore. The Canadian girls stayed in put in the beginning as Kaylee Kilpatrick was able to getting it done around the board, but after being only down four at half-time (9-13), the U.S. quickly pulled away when all four players scored baskets to stretch the lead to 12 points with 3.25 minutes remaining. It was Kilpatrick again to block a shot and to score another three points but Briyona Canty displayed a great feel around the hoop and was clearly the reason why the States took home the medal. She ultimately decided the game with less than five seconds to play (16-34) and the girls made up for Sunday’s surprising loss to Australia in the semis. Congratulations!
The full box score can be found here
1st Place Final
China – Australia 33-29
The stands were filled with yellow shirts as Australia was going against China in the girls’ finals. I really enjoyed the way the Chinese were playing, as they knew exactly how to force 1-on-1 situations, which led to sometimes easy point close to the basket. Olivia Bontempelli, who is one of the most prolific scorers in this tournament, missed all of her five field-goal attempts in the first half while a well-balanced scoring output of the whole Chinese team gave them a 20-9 lead at the break. Who thought, that this might be the end of the girls from down under should remind that the Australians came right back off an eight point-deficit to beat the U.S.A. on Sunday. Hannah Kaser netted in a three to cut the lead to seven after Bontempelli made one free throw right at the beginning of the second part of the game. It brought the tension back on the court and the fans reacted by cheering louder for their respective nations. After failing to score a single field-goal for seven minutes, Olivia Bontempelli found her stroke again and showed why she is so elementary in Australia’s success story here in Singapore. She knows how to spin her body around her opponents to score right under the rim and she did so while dashing the distance on the stat sheet to three points in just less than a minute! China was shaking now. Ma stayed calm on the charity stripe and made both shots (24-18) which also counts for Bontempelli as she got them back within four. After a series of missed opportunities on both sides, Yi Shen took a deep three to silence the yellow-and-green in the stands (28-21). But just seconds after that, Bontempelli got it going again and converted another jump-shot to even pull a foul and to make the bonus from the line as well (30-24). With 37 seconds to play, Xueya Ma showed no mercy with the Aussies and netted in another jumper which brought the Asians a big step closer to the gold. Yet, the game was not over and Olivia Bontempelli showed her fighting spirit again to put them back within four points with 28 seconds remaining on the clock.
The crucial moment came when Xueya Ma got fouled and went on to shoot free-throws. She made the first and made China more than happy as the game was over and China rightfully earned the gold medal! Congratulations to the very best team in this tournament!
The full box score can be found here
Results of the consolidation games:
Vanuatu – Thailand 15-33 (Maliliu 7 – Maihom 17)
Chile – Singapore 16-15 (Garcia 9 – Ng 5)
For 15th Place:
Angola – Ivory Coast 13-15 (Afonso 6 – Ouattara 9)
For 13th Place:
Czech Republic – Mali 32-12 (Brhelova 13 – Kanoute 6)
For 11th Place:
Russia – Belarus 21-18 (Kozochkina 12 – Nialepka 6)
For 9th Place:
France – Italy 18-26 (Mataly 7 – C.Dotto 11)
For 7th Place:
Germany – Korea 17-18 (Gohlisch 8 – Jeong 13)
For 5th Place:
Japan – Brasil 32-29 (Nagaoka 12 – Joice 14)
FIBA