Vincent Gevrey, head coach of the 3X3 Luxembourg national teams, is heading to Jerusalem (Israel) with the women’s national team to play the FIBA Europe Cup, the highest level competition in Europe.
The participation of our national team in this event is certainly a historical success for basketball in Luxembourg. Only 12 teams have qualified for the women’s Europe Cup: France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Israel, Lithuania, Portugal, France, Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic.
Luxembourg will face Spain and the Netherlands in group D of the event.
The program of team Luxembourg:
September 5th:
17:30 Luxembourg – Spain
19:20 Luxembourg – Netherlands
The semi finals and finals will be played on September 7th. Luxembourg needs to finish the group first or second to advance to the quarter finals (top 8 teams, elimination games).
Team roster:
Lisa Jablonowski, Nadia Mossong, Cathy Schmit, Bridget Yoerger
Vincent Gevrey, how is the team preparing for the big event?
We are working well despite some constraints concerning the availability of the group of players and our training partners. Overall everyone got involved and we will be physically and tactically ready to do our best. We had a training camp at Mataro (Barcelona, Spain) to prepare the tournament.
What are the goals at the event?
We know it will be difficult because we face professional teams who are playing the women’s series all summer. Despite that, we managed to build our gaming identity. Thanks to Marcel’s help, the girls are in good shape and we are ready and impatient now to go to Jerusalem.
In a 3X3 a match anything can happen. We must not be impressed by the event and seek to apply our game plan as good as possible. We’re not going to the tournament just to participate, the other teams don’t really know us so we secretly hope to create a surprise.
You will face the Netherlands and Spain in the group stage, what do you expect?
Our two adversaries have experience in these international competitions. Spain is a team established in the top 10 in the world. The team is built around an experienced player in Sandra Ygueravide who, at 38, is the main player of this team. It is an aggressive team capable of maintaining a very high intensity throughout the match.
The Netherlands had to adapt to the withdrawal of their star player Natalie Van den Adel, who took some rest. Despite everything, this team is vice champion of Europe, they will be a physical and experienced opponent with 4 very versatile players.
The challenge for us will be to enter the competition quickly and try to fight with our weapons. Achieving a victory and entering the 1/4 finals would be a real feat! But we’re going to give our best!
What does the participation of team Luxembourg mean for the 3X3 community?
This experience should serve as a springboard for developing our organization for next year. The girls paved the way and showed that Luxembourg can exist on the 3X3 map.
Here is a picture with the ticket to the event that the team was able to win at the qualifiers in Limassol.
The women were also able to win the Gold medal at the games of the small States of Europe.
