After tournaments in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Saarlouis, Le Havre, Paris and Amsterdam over the last weeks, our 3X3 national teams played the FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup Qualifiers in Limassol, Cyprus last weekend. While the women reached the finals where they lost to Cyprus, the men reached the semi finals where they lost to Azerbaijan.
Here is what the head coaches said after the event:
Anan Majdi (head coach men)
„It was a very nice experience for us in Cyprus. In general, the result is satisfying. It was the first time participating in this new discipline and after only 35 days of preparation (as the preparation was related to the end of the LBBL Championship), we were able to qualify from the group stage (despite the difficulty of this group that included many experienced teams). We were able to beat Andorra who participated in the European championship last season. We lost to Azerbaijan and had an unlucky loss against the home team.
In the quarter-finals we faced the second-ranked team from the first group, Kosovo, a physical team. Despite a bad start, we won the game which allowed us to advance to the semi-finals against Azerbaijan (who won the tournament). This game was an opportunity for us to take revenge, the players were focused and mentally present, we showed a reaction and surprised the opponent in this game. Unfortunately, some details didn’t allow to achieve the surprise. Sam Ferreira’s injury, which forced us to play with only 3 players, did not help obviously and we were a little tired because we played more games than Azerbaijan and these facts had an influence on our decision making at the end of the game.
In general, I am really proud of my team, who showed a high level of discipline, willing to win and also made good adjustments in the second day of the tournament. We have to build the next step out of it and hopefully achieve even better performances in the upcoming competitions.“
Vincent Gevrey (head coach women)
The group stage was a little bit complicated for our team. After we controlled Malta defensively, we struggled against Caprus after Bridget Yoerger had to leave the game after being hit in the eye. The quarter final the next day against Andorra was announced to be complicated against a very experienced team but a great defensive start and a great transition game allowed us to take a clear advantage (7-0) which allowed to control the whole game.
In the semi final against Ireland, we controlled the game on defense once again and showed a great fightinf spirit the whole game which allowed us to win this game clearly despite a few long range shots hit by the opponent. In the final, it was time to take revenge against Cycpurs, we were in the game immediately and created a small gapbut the local team managed to storm back. A few mistakes were responsible that Cyprus was able to regain the lead. The end of the game was super intense, we were not able to finish some plays which cost us this game. Our players have played extremely well, but Pilakouta (1.92 m and MVP of the tournament) was very hard to stop. »
Results by our women:
Group:
Luxembourg – Malta 13:7
Luxembourg – Cyprus 10:15
Classification games:
Luxembourg – Andorra 19:5 (quarter finals)
Luxembourg – Ireland 21:10 (semi finals)
Luxembourg – Cyprus 12:15 (finals)
Results by our men:
Group:
Luxembourg – Andorra 21:11
Luxembourg – Azerbaijan 10:16
Luxembourg – Cyprus 16:18
Classification games:
Luxembourg – Kosovo 19:10 (quarter finals)
Luxembourg – Azerbaijan 13:15 (semi finals)
Both teams wore the new official jerseys sponsored by our partner QUBE:
Artikel Tageblatt.lu (Premium) –> Europe-Cup-Qualifikation: Luxemburger Damen schaffen den Sprung ins Finale, die Herren nicht
Damen schaffen den Sprung ins Finale, die Herren nicht (Tageblatt.lu Premium)
