XIAMEN – The first day of the fifth FISU University World Cup – 3×3 in China was off to a flier with ISEG Senegal pulling off a stunner in overtime over Mon-Altius PE Institute of Mongolia. With the score tied at 19-19, the game went into overtime and Momath Seck sealed the deal for the Institut Supérieur d’Entrepreneurship et de Gestion with a clean 2-pointer.
Day one of the four-day tournament that pits the best university teams against each other, started with the first round of group matches in Pools A and C in both, the men’s and women’s competition.
Hosts and defending champions Huaqiao University also had a close game against Wroclaw University of Poland, in the men’s field.
Led by star player Zheng Yi, Huaqiao managed to eke out a 21-17 win.
In the women’s field Vasyl Stefanyk University of Ukraine were dominant in their 18-11 win over Szechenyi Istvan University of Hungary as they kicked off proceedings with the first match of the 2019 edition of the annual tournament.
All teams that were in action today, played two matches each with Huaqiao University and University of Macau emerging the big winners in the men’s field and University of Technology Sydney, Vasyl Stefanyk University and ISEG Senegal remaining unbeaten among the women’s teams.
“There were some problems for us during our games, but we changed our strategy and fought from the exterior lines,” revealed a happy Huang Jiahao, coach of the University of Macau who won both their games. “Yin Siliang played an important role in this plan, giving us a better chance to win.”
In the women’s field, Vasyl Stefanyk may be without star playmaker Victoria Kondus this time, but Veronika Kosmach is holding her own as is Darina Dubrovskaya who won the game for Vasyl Stefanyk against Catholic University of Valparaiso (PUCV) of Chile, 21-14.
After losing their first two games, Barbara Cousino from PUCV said, “It was very tough. We thought we could win, but it was really hard. It was our first two games, so we have to move on now, and think about how to play the next games better.”
All results from Day 1 can be found here and below. Day 2 will see teams in Pools B and D battle it out and all action will be streamed live on FISU.TV through to the finals on Sunday. The women’s final will start at 09:15 GMT on Sunday, 3 November and the men’s final will follow at 09:40. On the sidelines of the main competition there will also be shootout and slam dunk finals on Saturday, 2 November at 12:40 GMT and 12:55 GMT. Direct links to all days’ live action can be found here.
