The Sal’s NBL Final Four and the U15 Aon Nationals are not the only basketball events to attend this weekend
This article courtesy BBNZ
Round Five of the 3×3.EXE league is all set to tip off in Christchurch (1:30pm on 21 July).
With only eight rounds in the competition, teams are at now at the halfway point with team University of Canterbury.EXE leading the South.
People are welcome to attend the event, with free entry. The FIBA World Cup will also be at the South Island conference event between 1pm and 2:30pm, with fans allowed to come and see the cup and take photos with it.
Team Checkers.EXE upset the form guide to win round four of the South Island Conference 3×3 competition at Christchurch’s Ara Institute.
Checkers, who hadn’t made it out of pool-play in the previous three rounds, beat competition leaders University of Canterbury (UC) 16-14 in the final, however UC moved to the outright lead of the competition after Checkers did them a favour by beating Lincoln University 20-18 in the semi-finals.
The Checkers team of Ben Nelson, Ben Harris Sam Riley and debutante, former professional player, Ariel Galvez-Mepana were able to turn around a 21-16 loss to University of Canterbury to prevail in the final.
Checkers were able to match-up physically against University of Canterbury and rode the strong shooting of Mepana and Riley to show they could be a force for the latter stages of the competition. Riley said with a new-look team, he felt they would only improve as the day went on and he felt they had the size to match it with the University of Canterbury which proved to be the case.
In the first semi-final it was Round One winners Gators.EXE meeting University of Canterbury, the winner of the previous two rounds. In a game that took a while to heat-up, it was the height and size of current Canterbury Ram Brent Fisher, who proved the difference. The game was dominated by perimeter shooting, although Fisher was a menace in the paint on attack and was a dominant rebounder, allowing UC second chance opportunities at will.
Gators did well to stick with the competition front-runners but without the competition’s best shooter, Matt Mischewski, who was injured. Gators came up just short, 15-14.
Checkers caused the big upset by knocking off the previously red-hot Lincoln University in their semi-final. Lincoln University had breezed through pool-play on the back of their superb perimeter shooting, however, their hot hand left them in the knock-out game, with Checkers making the most of their superior size and physicality to lead all the way for the surprise win.
Hear from Sam Riley directly about his team’s performance:
Round Four Results:
Lincoln Uni.EXE 21-12 Atami.EXE
University of Canterbury.EXE 21-16 Checkers.EXE
Lincoln University.EXE 21-10 Gators.EXE
Checkers.EXE 22-7 Wolverines.EXE
Gators.EXE 19-17 Atami.EXE
University of Canterbury.EXE 21-20 Wolverines.EXE
Semi-final 1: University of Canterbury.EXE 15-14 Gators.EXE
Semi-final 2: Checkers.EXE 20-18 Lincoln University.EXE
Final: Checkers.EXE 16-14 University of Canterbury.EXE
SOUTH ISLAND CONFERENCE – Points Table after four rounds:
University of Canterbury.EXE 11, Lincoln University.EXE 10, Gators.EXE 8, Atami.EXE 7, Wolverines.EXE 4, Checkers.EXE 4.
Official Results are available on play.fiba3x3.com, and the event was streamed on our facebook page
More information:
The winners of each of the South Island and North Island conferences after all eight rounds will qualify for the 3X3.EXE Premier finals in Japan.
The teams that come second in each of the NZ conferences will go to a qualifying tournament, and the winning team will be given automatic entry in the main tournament. With all expenses paid, those four teams will compete for a share of USD$20,000 in prize-money in Tokyo in September. The winner of the big Tokyo based event will also qualify for a FIBA World Tour Masters Event.
NZ 3X3.EXE ROUNDS:
• Round 5, 20-21 July
• Round 6, 3-4 August
• Round 7, 17-18 August
• Round 8, 24-25 August
• 3×3.EXE Playoffs in Tokyo, 7-8 September
For more information including Schedule, Ladder, Teams and Images, please see the dedicated 3X3.EXE BBNZ page
Follow the 3X3.EXE Premier League on Basketball New Zealand’s social media channels: @BasketballNZ on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and on the website, nz.basketball
