USA Women Capture Inaugural FIBA 3x3 World Championship Gold, Men’s Quest For Medal Ends In Quarterfinals
Men and Women was held August 23-26 in Athens, Greece, and the USA 3x3 women’s team rolled to a perfect 9-0 record and captured gold, while the USA men com- piled a 5-2 record and finished seventh after being eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual gold medalist Serbia. The USA 3x3 World
T
Championship men’s and women’s teams were chosen by the 2012 USA Basketball 3x3 National Team Committee after participating in the 2012 USA Basketball 3x3 National Team Training Tournament (see page 116).
Selected for the USA
men’s squad were, Adetayo Adesanya (Naperville, Ill.), Ira Brown (Corsicana, Texas), Tyree Hardge (Surprise, Ariz.) and Allen DuBois Williams (Tempe, Ariz.). The foursome were all members of the Desert Pro-Am team that won the USA Men’s National Tournament with an 8-0 record. The 2012 USA Basketball 3x3
The USA 3x3 Women’s World Championship Team rolled to a perfect 9-0 record and captured gold at the inaugural FIBA 3x3 World Championship. Pictured (L-R) is Ann Strother, Chiney Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins and Bria Hartley.
as the replacement. The 2012 FIBA 3x3 World
Women’s National Team originally featured current collegiate standouts Skylar Diggins (University of Notre Dame/South Bend, Ind.), Bria Hartley (University of Connecticut/North Babylon, N.Y.), Chiney Ogwumike (Stanford University/Cypress, Texas) and Alyssa Thomas (University of Maryland/ Harrisburg, Pa.), who teamed together to win the USA Basketball 3x3 Women’s National Tournament. After Thomas withdrew from playing, former UConn star and USA Basketball veteran Ann Strother (Castle Rock, Colo.) was named
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Championship featured 24 men’s teams and 24 women’s national teams that were divided into four preliminary round groups of six teams each. Following round-robin play within each group, the top four finishing teams from each group advanced to the Eight Finals and those winners advanced to the quarterfinals. Victors of the four quarterfinals games moved on to the Aug. 26 semifinals and those winners then went on to the gold medal game, while the two losers played in the bronze medal game. Also featured during the 3x3 World Championship was a skills contest for
he inaugural FIBA 3x3 World
Championships for
“This is the first-ever 3x3 World
Championship. To be the first-ever world champions, not only for the USA, but the first- ever for any country, I think says a lot and is something to remember as you get old.”
Bria Hartley USA Women’s
3x3 Team Member
women, a dunk contest for men and a shootout contest for both men and women. In addition to her women’s team
gold medal, Diggins claimed silver in the skills challenge. “It was a series of ball-handling
things and the first day we did it, I got the fastest time pretty nonchalant,” said Diggins on her silver medal showing in the skills contest. “When I went through this time (finals), I mishandled the ball...I still finished, I thought I was going to win, but I mishandled it and I lost it.” Winning a gold medal in the dunk
contest after jumping over a motorcycle for a perfect score of 30 was Venezuela’s Deivi Añanguren Madriz. The USA’s Adetayo missed his first few attempts to fly over three kids en route to his dunk and claimed silver after receiving a 28. “I just wanted to get the crowd
involved initially,” said Adesanya following his silver-medal winning dunk. “I had some great suggestions from my teammates. We talked about a few different things. But, when you actually get out there on the court in front of all the fans and the lights, you do have a plan beforehand, but when it came down to it I had to go with my gut with what I thought was going to provide the best results.”