BY RIZWAN REHMAt
DOHA: Serbian giants Novi Sad yesterday capped their dream run in 2014 by winning the 3x3 All Stars title with an emphatic victory over Team Doha at Katara Beach.
Led by influential Dusan Domovic, Novi Sad won the final 20-12 to supplement their group stage win against the same side earlier in the evening.
Two months ago, Novi Sad ended the 3x3 season with a win over Canada’s Saskatoon in the final of the third edition of the FIBA 3x3 World Tour, which was held at Xebio Arena in Sendai, Japan.
After losing in the final last year in Istanbul, Novi Sad came back to the FIBA 3x3 World Tour this October.
Fast forward to December 12, 2014, and Novi Sad exhibited high-pressure skills to crush home hopes of a maiden title worth $35,000.
In June this year, Novi Sad players had lost to Qatar in the FIBA 3x3 World Championship held in Moscow.
Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrehman Al Thani, President of Qatar Basketball Federation, joined Horacio Muratore, the FIBA chief, to present trophies to the two finalists.
“I feel amazing, really,” Domovic said after the one-side final which also featured team-mates Marko Zdero, Marko Savic and Dejan Majstorovic.
“I told you last night that we lost the final to them and after a year when we saw that video, it (the loss) still hurt,” he added. “And I showed that video to my team-mates and said ‘we must be focused every game’.
“I am glad that we are the best in the world now,” Domovic, the world number one in 3x3, said.
When asked about the one-sided scorecard, 20-12, Domovicic said: “No, that is our usual stuff. We are an offensive team and we play to 21 points. It is our game,” he said.
“We have one more tournament in Brazil on January 10 (2015) and then we head for a vacation. It was almost a perfect year as we lost (only) two finals. We need to be satisfied for sure,” he said.
“They are my friends off the court. We hang out together,” Domovic said. Team Doha captain Yassen Musa blamed fatigue for the side’s poor show in the title clash. Musa’s team-mates included Boney Watson, Mohammed Yusuf and Mohammed Abdulla
“They beat us twice this tournament,” Musa said. “Maybe next event we can play better. We did good since we reached the final,” the tall Qatari added.
“You know it was tough. Let me tell you guys (the journalists): the problem was we played three GCC matches yesterday. Today we play four matches. Tomorrow we play another three matches,” the world number 12 explained.
“It is very hard. One player can’t play so many matches. People may think it is easy to play so many matches, but it is not easy. Plus we play the regular league games as well,” Musa said.
“These guys only play this format whereas we play all these games. Considering the number of games we play, it was good that we reached the final. It is hard to play so many games. We are not young. All of us are over 30,” Musa.
“We have the GCC 3x3 coming up in February. We will meet them again and with better preparation, we will play better. They looked fresh,” he added.
Earlier in the semi-finals, Novi Sad crushed Bucharest 21-16 while Team Doha edged past Kaunsas 18-15. Team Doha kicked off the day’s proceedings with a 18-13 win over Yokohama but lost to Novi Sad 20-17 in game two. Novi Sad beat Yokohama 18-14 to reach the semi-finals with two wins in as many games. The sixth team Saskatoon also lost both their games. THE PENINSULA
