12 June 2018
By Maxine Louise Lagman
BOCAUE, Bulacan – The Serbian men defended their title after defeating Netherlands, 16-13, to clinch once again the gold medal in the 2018 FIBA 3×3 World Cup, Tuesday at the Philippine Arena.
The win serves as Serbia’s third straight victory in the tournament and fourth overall, proving to be one of the dominant teams in the FIBA 3×3 World Cup stage.
It was a slow start for Serbia until one of the top players in the 3×3 game, Dusan Bulut, boosted the team to turn the odds back into their favor and led the game for the first time, 10-9, with 2:11 left on the clock.
In this rematch, Netherlands continued to be a hard team to tame, putting the game back at dreadlock, 11-all. But Stefan Stojacic drained a two-point jumper followed by Marko Savic’s and-one to keep Serbia on top, 15-11.
Keeping their hopes up, Sjoerd van Vilsteren scored for Netherlands in the last 56.2 seconds of the game, 15-12. But Bulut cut their hopes short as his lay-up clinched the win for the Serbians.
Bulut or “Bulletproof” led Serbia with seven points and was named MVP of the 3×3 World Cup. He was followed by Jesper Jobse from Netherlands and Michael Hicks from Poland.
Serbia had a clean slate coming to the finals of the tournament and beaten Netherlands once again since last year’s match.
Meanwhile, Slovenia took home the bronze medal after defeating Poland, 21-16.
The Scores:
SERBIA 16 – Bulut 7, Stojacic 4, Savic 3, Majstorovic 2.
NETHERLANDS 13 – Jobse 6, Van Vilsteren 4, nVan der Horst 3, Roije 0.
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