3x3 NI Tour Final in Cookstown!

With the ‘’FIBA 3x3’’ Basketball is expanding worldwide in the recent years, ‘’Wolves’’ basketball

club noticed that the development of this sport in Northern Ireland is very low and that changes must

be done.

As the sport became a part of Olympic and Commonwealth games the club had to step up with the

promotion of this sport, so with the Help of ‘’Basketball Northern Ireland’’, ‘’Northern Ireland

Commonwealth games’’ and advice from ‘’Lithuanian 3x3 association’’ ‘’Wolves’’ club started to build

their own ‘’3x3 Northern Ireland Community’’ which was created to be able to organise ‘’standalone’’

and ‘’3x3 Tours’’ during the summer time.

With this said, the first ‘’3x3 NI Tour’’ were announced to be played this Summer in three different

cities: Lisburn, Craigavon, Dublin, and Final Tour, with the best 8 teams in Cookstown. During these

tours, individual and team ranking points were shared that were recognised worldwide by ‘’FIBA 3x3’’.

As the ‘’3x3 NI Community’’ become the official promoter, we managed to get players and teams

travelling from abroad to participate in these events.

After the three Tours finished and with some Development tournaments organised between the

dates in Northern Ireland, the ‘’3x3 NI Community’’ counted that they managed to organise and play

239 Matches between 185 Players from 9 Different Countries (UK, Ireland, USA, Lithuania, Latvia,

Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, Spain). These numbers were higher than expected and become

a motivation for future events!

The Final event were held in Cookstown Leisure Centre to share a cash prize of 1 200 £ between

the best 8 teams of the 3 Tours. Our ‘’Bc Wolves’’ squad finished second in the overall table with a

tour win Dublin, so the Final in Cookstown showed that it will be competitive as it was expected. The

all 8 Teams from around the Ireland played in two groups, but the Final 4 split between two teams

from Ireland and two teams From Northern Ireland.

The Competition for the third place were played by ‘’Magic (IRL)’’ and ‘’Wolves ZRemovals (NI)’’ and

the Final by ‘’Bc Wolves (NI)’’ and ‘’Zalgiris-2 (IRL). Bot games provided high quality basketball with a

lot of emotions and a very close games that were a spectacular to watch for all the spectators and

supporters that came.

The battle for third place ended with ‘’Wolves’’ club representatives ‘’Z Removals’’ winning by just two

points 16-14, and the Final went to the guests from Ireland ‘’Zalgiris-2’’ who won against ‘’Wolves’’ in

the defence battle by score 13:11.

The last Standings

1. Zalgiris-2 (IRL)

2. Bc Wolves (NI)

3. Wolves ZRemovals (NI)

4. Magic (IRL)

We hope that these events will become an example and motivation to grow this sport here in Northern

Ireland.