The women’s 3×3 basketball team is not used to doing things in a normal way. The team made up of Vega Gimeno, Sandra Ygueravide, Gracia Alonso de Armiño and Juana Camilión, and coached by Ana Junyer, qualified for the Paris Games thanks to a basket with their backs to the basket in the last second of the decisive pre-Olympic match. And this Saturday they went from the opening game to the semi-finals after another fluke.
Spain lost its final group match against Germany (15-18) and seemed headed for the quarterfinals, the round played by the third to sixth-placed teams in a single group of eight teams. But luck was on the side of this group of hard-working players and the victories of France against Australia (18-16) and the United States against China (14-12) enabled the Spanish team to maintain second place in the table, after Germany, and thus directly advance to the semi-finals in its Olympic debut.
The national team will face the United States in the penultimate round on Monday, after beating China 21-13 in the quarterfinals, and Germany will face Canada, which beat Australia 21-10. The final will be on Monday at La Concorde, the venue that hosts this very spectacular and dynamic form of street basketball.
3×3 matches last just 10 minutes, provided that one team does not reach 21 points before then. The game is played on a basket in the middle of a court. Each successful shot from behind the three-point line is worth two points; one from inside the court. Spain beat Azerbaijan, France, Australia and Canada in the group stage, and lost to China, the United States and Germany.
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