Antwerp struggles to win and survive the group stage in Utrecht | 3×3 Basketball

After the defeat to Utrecht, the Antwerp team had to win their second group match to advance to the second day. But in front of Marigampoli from Lithuania, it was anything but a smooth sailing.

The match went relatively evenly, but on the scoreboard the Lithuanians still had a 4-8 lead, the perfect moment for Verfort to finally shoot the pointer. Then Antwerp seemed a bit liberal and they went to 17-13 and then 19-15. So the binary indicator was enough to win.

But she did not fall. Siles made a foul and delivered two free throws: 19-17. At 20-19, the tension was cut off. The Lithuanian team had three open opportunities to finish with a pointer, but was repeatedly missed. The seconds passed in favor of the Belgians and with 3 seconds left, Seles had two chances to finish him off the free throw line, but that didn’t work out either. So it was still holding our breath a bit, but it ended up at 20-19 for Antwerp.

The Belgians will have to raise their level if they are to play an important role in the final stage of this world tour.

Antwerp played its opening match against home team Utrecht with Worthy de Jong. De Jong is relatively new to 3×3 basketball, but he clearly already feels at home on the small court.

Under him, the Dutch ran to at least 8-0. De Jong was good at getting 9 out of Utrecht’s first 10 points. The Belgians did not close that gap again, certainly not because they had a hard time passing the ball through the ring themselves. Antwerp certainly left out some easy spots in the beginning.

Antwerp got into the boat with 21-11, painful. He now has to straighten his back and defeat Marijumbo later tonight to advance.

Utrecht is the setting for the 3×3 World Tour this weekend. The Antwerp team will be present with Caspar Augustinen, Raf Bogarts, Nick Siles and Thibaut Vervoort. Will the Belgians reach the final stage of the tournament? Follow it here.