Our women’s 3X3 national team was able to celebrate a historic achievement by qualifying for the FIBA EUROPE CUP that will be played in September (5-7) in Jerusalem (Israel).
Luxembourg was able to grab one of only twelve available spots at the biggest European 3X3 event. The teams that will compete at the event are Israel (host), France (title defender), Germany, Netherlands, Lithuania, Italy, Ukraine, Spain, Czech Republic , Portugal, Hungary and Luxembourg.
3X3 basketball has been growing in Luxembourg over the last years and the historic qualification is „the result of the hard work that all involved people have put in over the past two years » says Vincent Gevrey who is the head coach of both the women’s and men’s team. „We have spent so much time together over the last months, we played tournaments, saw each other 7 days a week and synchronized our schedules. It is so much fun to work with these players, everybody is at the same page. That is also why our men’s team celebrated together with our women’s team after winning the final of the qualification. I am very proud of the group that we have. » Our women’s team was able to stay unbeaten at the qualifiers. „We prepared well for the event. We knew that the climate situation (heat and wind) will become a big factor and we adapted our playing style to it. In the most important games, our ladies played exceptionally well. »
A closer look at the women’s roster shows that there is enormous quality in the team. With Yoerger, Jablonowski and Mossong, 3 players played professional basketball for many years while Cathy Schmit has been one of the top players in Luxembourg for the past 15 years and showed that she can still play at this level after becoming a mother. „We have enormous quality in our group. Now it is time to make the next step and prepare for an event where the competition will be extremely strong, obviously much stronger than the level of play of any opponents we have faced over the last two years ». The qualification for the Europe Cup is clearly a sensational success: „It is amazing that we can be part of this competition. We will give our best to prepare as good as we can for the event in Israel. We are looking forward to it, it will be an amazing experience and our team has definitely deserved this opportunity. »
In the group phase, Luxembourg will face Spain and the Netherlands in pool D.
