The 3X3 Masters in Ghent are already in the books. On Saturday June 27, we had a little under 70 teams (69 to be exact) playing 3X3 Basketball at Kouter in Gent.
YOUNG KIDS GOT GAME BEFORE NOON
With DJ Boris on the turntables and MC Stanny on the mic, the Kouter quickly transformed into a mini urban festival, providing ballers from the necessary music and shout-outs during their games. The competition took a quick start, with 19 teams U15 and 10 teams U13 showing their best skills, shots and dribbling moves.
In the U13 category, it were The Kings of Basket and The Cavs who came out on top of the pool phase, winning all 4 of their games. Hoopsquad and Getwood city won 3 times and also advanced to the semi-finals and secured their spot in the 3X3 Masters Finals. In a very close game, The Kings of Basket won against Getwood City (7-6) and The Cavs beat Hoopsquad (10-6). In the finals, The Kings of Basket got the best of their opponents, winning the title and Bouncewear-coupon for each player.
Only the winners of each pool would advance to the semi-finals in the U15 category. The pool phase competition was fierce but eventually Shake and Bake, Tomahawk, Green Gang and Bball Kings would come out on top of their pool. Green Gang defeated Tomahawk in the semi-finals, Shake and Bake did the same against Bball Kings, leaving both teams to play the U15 Finals in Ghent.
It was a real heartbreaker to see one of these teams lose, but Green Gang took the fall, losing with only one point and leaving Shake and Bake as the winners.
Stijn Philips from The Kings of Basket got double treats on Saturday, winning not only the U13 tournament, but also proving to be the best free throw shooter in the NBA 2K Shootout Competition. He will be shooting some more soon with his copy of NBA 2K15 for PlayStation.
SUN, FUN & DUNKS
From 2 until 7 PM, Kouter would belong to the U18 Boys, 18+ Men and 18+ Women. Out of the 8 teams playing in the U18 Boys category, 4 teams proved to be better than the others: Born-Ballers, BBC Alley, Rose before hoes and BCO Ballers came out on top op the pool phase and advanced to the semi-finals.
A little different story for the 18+ women, where 8 of the 12 teams qualified for the quarter-finals on Saturday, leaving only Unstoppable, Knokke, One Team and No Balls, but Glory out of the knock-out phase. In those quarter finals, Chicks Got Game, Nothing but Nets, Chick Curry and Peak Sports beat their opponents to advance to the semi-finals and secure their golden ticket to the 3X3 Masters Finals.
20 teams participated in the 18+ Men category, divided into 4 pools of 5 teams with only the winner of each pool moving on to the semi-finals. Three clear winners came out of the pools: Puus, Sportizon and Underarmour won all of their games, clinching their golden ticket. In pool D, both Tunesquad and Team Blockbuster – with the energetic Gilles Matho – won 3 times. The head-to-head confrontation between both teams, is the deciding factor in this case, moving Tunesquad into the last semi-final spot thanks to their 5-7 victory over Gilles Matho and his team.
Before we moved on to the knock-out phase of the tournament, the NBA 2K Shootout competition and Dunk Contest gave us our first female shooting champion of the season and a former shooting champ claiming the Dunk title.
Lisa Foucart from team Chick Curry was the only female contestant left for the Final Round, in which she was the only one to knock down the mid-court shot and ultimately beating San from Skyteam to claim the shooting crown.
In the Dunk Contest, three guys took their chances: Barry (Underarmour), Sam (Sportizon) and Yoni (Sportizon). Sam Caron was voted as the Ghent Dunk Champ after making his 180 reverse dunk in the Finals, beating Barry – who took some risks flying over his Underarmour teammates – but not completing the dunk. If you see Sam, make sure to check out the Dunk Contest prize on his feet: a pair of fresh Retro Air Jordans provided by Bouncewear.
The knock-out phase can be described in three words: exciting, excellent and intense. With several games going into overtime or coming down to the last seconds, it were the players with the biggest cool to go all the way every time: Rose before Hoes won the U18 Boys final against Born-Ballers (8-12), the Belgium-Holland finals in the 18+ Women category was won by Julie Van Loo and her Chicks Got Game squad (11-8) and finally Underarmour beat Puus 13-11 to win the 18+ Men category.
WHAT’S NEXT?
All teams who made the quarter finals at 3X3 Masters Ghent, are invited to play at the 3X3 Masters Finals on July 25th in Antwerp. If you didn’t make it yet, you still have a chance to qualify through one of these 3X3 Masters tournaments:
Make sure to check out our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube accounts for all pictures and video’s of 3X3 Masters Gent. They will be uploaded in the next few days.