The men’s national 3x3 basketball team finished their FIBA 3x3 Africa Cup 2022 campaign in Cairo, Egypt, on a fair note after grabbing the third place with a 21-17 victory over Tunisia on Sunday night, December 4.
The team won a bronze medal, the first medal they have ever won in the FIBA 3x3 Africa Cup.
A third place finish was the least Moise Mutokambali’s men could achieve after they lost to Madagascar by 21-14 in the semi-finals.
The 3x3 Africa Cup 2017 bronze-medalists went ahead to conquer gold after defeating hosts and 2019 winners Egypt 20-17 in the final.
Livio Ratianarivo contributed an impressive 12 points in the final while tournament MVP Elly Randriamampionona added 4 points to finish the competition with 34 points overall.
The 25-year-old was joined in the Team of the Tournament by silver medalist Mido Taha of Egypt and Rwanda’s Jean Jacques Wilson Nshobozwabyosenumukiza who is the tournament’s highest scorer with 38 points.
In the women's competition, Egypt won their second straight 3x3 Africa Cup title (and also second overall) after defeating Madagascar 21-11 in the final.
Soraya Mohamed posted 9 points for the hosts, while tournament MVP Nadine Mohamed contributed four.
Nadine was joined in the team of the tournament by Madagascar's Rondro Raherimanana and Debora Mayimona, who won bronze with the Democratic Republic of Congo and finished as the top scorer in the women's competition.
The triumphs in Cairo saw Madagascar's men and Egypt's women clinch their tickets to the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2023, which will take place in Vienna, Austria.
Meanwhile, Egypt's men and Madagascar's women, who finished as runner-ups, still have a chance to win a ticket to Austria should they impress at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2023 Qualifier in Israel.
Exciting, urban and innovative, 3x3 is inspired by several forms of streetball played worldwide and is considered the world’s number one urban team sport.
Steered by FIBA, games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court.
It was played successfully for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and since then has benefited from the launch of a yearly city-based FIBA 3x3 World Tour and national-team FIBA 3x3 World & Continental Cups.
On July 24, 2021, 3x3 made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games.