3x3 Basketball World Tour Riyadh 2022: Riga beats Ub in nail-biting final
Olympic gold medallist Nauris Miezis of Latvia landed late consecutive two-pointers to seal the victory in Saudi Arabia on Saturday (12 November).
Basketball 3x3
World Tour 2020 winners Riga completed an unbeaten run with a hard-fought 21-19 rout of Ub Huishan NE in the final of the FIBA 3x3 Basketball World Tour Riyadh Masters in Saudi Arabia on Saturday (12 November).
With two late audacious two-pointers, Nauris Miezis ultimately sealed the victory and earned the Latvian star the most valuable player award.
Made up of Latvia’s Olympic gold medal-winning team of Edgars Krumins, Karlis Lasmanis, Miezis and Agnis Cavars, Riga won their third title of the World Tour this season.
The Serbian outfit of Ub Huishan NE, who came into the final looking for their fifth title of the season, had to play catch up after Riga dominated the opening salvos. Riga opened a 5-0 cushion before Ub finally got onto the scoreboard, courtesy of the world-number-one player Strahinja Stojacic.
Once the Serbians caught up with Riga, the contest became a tit-for-tat battle with only a point separating the sides until the dying moments of the contest. With the clock running down, Ub finally got their noses in front 18-17 courtesy of a Stojacic one-point shot.
Ub looked set to further cement their place at the top of the overall World Tour rankings before Miezis landed consecutive two-pointers. The first was to wrest the lead back, and the second was a buzzer-beater to clinch the victory. In addition to landing the knockout blow, Miezis contributed 10 points to his team’s scoreline.
The Riyadh Masters was the penultimate stop ahead of next month’s tour final in Abu Dhabi (10-11 December) and served as another opportunity to earn points towards qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
All FIBA 3x3 Federation Ranking points collected until 1 November 2023 will begin counting towards qualification for the global showpiece.
The Federation Ranking list, calculated based on the points collected by a National Olympic Committee’s top 25 national players competing in FIBA-endorsed events, will be used to determine the first three quota spots for Paris and eligibility for subsequent Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.
READ: How to qualify for 3x3 basketball at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained