Singapore women’s team one win away from historic Fiba 3x3 World Cup qualification

SINGAPORE – The Republic’s Fiba 3x3 World Cup dream continues as Singapore’s world No. 20 women’s team rebounded from 3-10 down in their must-win Pool B match on April 11 to record a historic victory by beating 62nd-ranked Brazil 15-13 in overtime at The Kallang’s OCBC Square.

Han Xing Yue, who sank the winning two-pointer after teammate Jermaine Lim had forced overtime with a two-pointer with just eight seconds of regulation time left in the 10-minute match, said: “This win means a lot.”

“We played a good first game but not good enough to beat the Philippines. Against Brazil, we trusted the game plan and went for every bounce and managed to win the game. I’m very proud of my teammates; no one gave up. We just continued fighting, even though we were losing. We trusted each other.”

In 3x3, which is played on a half-court, every made basket inside the arc is worth one point and every successful shot beyond the perimeter earns two. The first team to score 21 points, or the side with more points at the end of the single 10-minute period, win. If there is a tie, the first team to score two points in overtime win.

Earlier in the day, the Fiba 3x3 World Cup Qualifier debutantes also made a slow start to trail world No. 18 Philippines 3-10 but came back strongly to level the scores at 19-19 and came to within one basket of stunning the Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup silver medallists who eventually won 21-19.

Despite Brazil’s earlier 16-13 win over the Filipinas, the two South-east Asian teams advanced by virtue of points scored. Round 2 takes place on April 12 at the same venue.

Pool B runners-up Singapore will next play Pool A winners and world No. 13 Hungary, while the Pool B winners Philippines will face Pool A runners-up and world No. 22 Lithuania, with the winners advancing to the June 1-7 World Cup in Warsaw, Poland.

The losing teams from Round 2 will play each other in Round 3, with the winners also qualifying for the World Cup, which features 20 teams each for the men’s and women’s competitions.

After masterminding the women’s team’s first quarter-final appearance at the Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup a week earlier, Singapore’s national 3x3 head coach Lazar Rasic added: “We had some problems with opening the game, but we are working on that. It probably is a little bit of nervousness due to the importance of the competitions.

“But I’m happy because we are showing the character that we are not giving up until the very end of the game... this is a big win for us.”

However, Singapore’s world No. 30 men’s team, who were missing key player Liam Blakney who has just enlisted for national service, could not make it to the next round of the World Cup Qualifier after losing their Pool A matches against 18th-ranked Czech Republic (20-10) and Brazil 19-11. The 48th-ranked Brazilians beat the Czechs 22-15 to top the group.

In Round 2, Brazil will go on to play Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup champions and Pool B runners-up New Zealand, who are 22nd in the world ranking, while Czech Republic take on Pool B winners and 23rd-ranked Italy.