SUKHBAATAR (Mongolia) - Impressively backing up their vintage title-winning run at the World Tour Marseille , top seed Ub (SRB) continued their red-hot form at the FIBA 3x3 Sukhbaatar Challenger 2025 on May 31-June 1. Here is what happened in the fifth Challenger of the season. The winner: Ub (SRB) They were: No.1 points & highlights
Any lingering question marks on Ub have been emphatically answered after they romped to an unbeaten campaign in Sukhbaatar. Ub's slow start to the season feels like a distant memory after consecutive dubs as they made another resounding statement to the competition.
After an unbeaten Day One, Ub put the foot down to blast past Hangzhou (CHN) in the quarters before shooting the lights out in a high quality semi-final against London (USA).
Ub had to muster their best in the final against in-form Chongming (CHN) as muscular Nemanja Barac and Nenad Nerandzic proved why they are defensive beasts by shutting down scoring machine Cameron Forte.
Ub's victory was a team performance, but the standout was superstar Strahinja Stojacic who claimed his second straight MVP. After briefly relinquishing top spot on the individual rankings, 'Doctor Strange' is back at No.1 and playing some of the best ball of his legendary career.
The runner-up: Chongming (CHN) They were: 1st shooting value
Chongming have been one of the very best teams this season. They have made at least the semis at all five events they've played, but fell short of adding a second title.
After a tight opening victory over Barcelona (ESP), Chongming went on a roll that culminated with an impressive semi-final victory over the Worthy de Jong-less Amsterdam RABOBANK (NED).
Forte played bully ball to produce arguably the best performance of the tournament with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 5 highlights to completely destroy the No.2 seed.
Forte's brilliance was underlined by his dominance of the stats, but he had strong support with ZhiChao Xiang stepping up with huge buckets throughout.
The Final: Ub 21-Chongming 18
There was a lot of anticipation for these unbeaten teams, especially whether Ub's legendary hardnosed defense could stop Forte who entered averaging 9 ppg. Ub planned to make Forte work on D and Stojacic attacked him immediately for the layup and the and-1.
Forte had it tough against lockdown defenders Barac and Nerandzic, but still managed to get his with a couple of buckets to keep Chongming in the contest. But Chongming had no answer on the defensive end with Ub going on a game-changing 5-0 run capped by a putback from Stojacic.
Forte was getting frustrated as Ub's long-armed defenders swarmed him inside the paint, but Chongming stormed back into the contest with Xingrui Wu going on a heater to reduce Ub's lead to 19-18.
With the title in the balance, Ub turned to Stojacic who did not let them down as he turned on the acceleration and finished with the dunk. Ageless Dejan Majstorovic then pulled down a huge rebound and ended Chongming's resistance with a tough bucket in traffic.
Stojacic finished with 8 points and 8 highlights to reinforce why he's 3x3 number 1.
The reward: Three tickets to the WT Edmonton Ub, Chongming and Amsterdam RABOBANK qualified for the WT Edmonton on August 2-3. Final Standings: 1. Ub (SRB) 2. Chongming (CHN) 3. Amsterdam RABOBANK (NED) 4. London (USA) 5. Shinagawa CITY EXE (JPN) Top Scorers: 1. Cameron Forte (Chongming, CHN) 40 pts 2. Strahinja Stojacic (Ub, SRB) 37 pts 3. Maarten Bouwknecht (Amsterdam RABOBANK, NED) 34 pts 4. ZhiChao Xiang (Chongming, CHN) 30 pts 5. Jerome Desrosiers (London, USA) 27 pts Key Stats: - Mongolian superstar Anand Ariunbold balled out with a triple-five of 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 highlights in Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy's (MGL) pool victory over Ermont SENEF (FRA). - Bryan Alberts had a monster performance of 13 points, 4 rebounds and 5 highlights in Amsterdam RABOBANK's quarter-final win over Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy. - Ub's semi-final victory over London lasted just 6'38" in playing time to be the fastest game of the tournament.
FIBA