Serbia Loses Bronze to Australia 22-20 in Wuhan Overtime

Serbia opened the bronze medal game at the 3x3 Basketball World Cup in Wuhan, China, the way teams rarely manage against a favored opponent. Australia scored first to lead 1:0, but the young Serbian squad answered with three straight points to move ahead 3:1. For a moment it looked like the U23 team would ride that start to its first medal of the tournament, played on September 19.

Then came a swing that nearly settled the match early. Australia found its shooting touch from every spot on the court, first pulling ahead 6:5, then breaking away to 10:6 and soon to 13:8. Serbia looked shaken by the run, and the bench had little time to find an answer before the gap grew further.

The response came from the players the team leaned on most. Djordjevic hit a two-pointer to make it 13:12 and pull Serbia back into the game, while Vuk Vukicevic kept carrying the offense until the score was level at 16:16 in the closing stretch of regulation. In 3x3 basketball, that tie felt like the match turning over completely, since until then Australia’s lead had looked too big to chase down.

The tied score sent the game to overtime, a format in this discipline where a single possession, or a single free throw, often decides everything. Australia showed more composure there, capitalizing on space Serbia left open on defense to score the winning point and close out the game 22:20. Serbia was left without a medal, finishing the World Cup in fourth place, one spot short of the podium it had within reach.

The road to the bronze medal game

Serbia reached the final round after a strong run through the knockout stage. In the quarterfinals, the team beat France 22:19, controlling the game for most of its duration. That result sent Serbia into a semifinal against Lithuania, a match that in its early stages resembled the bronze medal game that followed. Lithuania opened with a 3:0 run, but Vukicevic answered with a scoring streak that put Serbia ahead 8:7.

Lithuania responded with a run of its own, pulled away to 13:10 and closed out the game comfortably at 22:15. That loss cost Serbia a shot at gold or silver and sent the team into the battle for third place, where fortune turned against it once again, this time only in overtime, in a game that could have gone either way until the final possession.

The World Cup final later that same day in Wuhan is being played by Lithuania and Latvia, the two teams that stood in the way of a Serbian medal. Lithuania did it in the semifinal, Australia in the bronze medal game, leaving Serbia with fourth place instead of either of the two medals still in play. The team reached the knockout rounds with a perfect record in the group stage, where, as previously reported, it beat Kazakhstan and Tonga to advance comfortably among the tournament’s top eight teams.

For a team that built its game around one player in the toughest moments, this World Cup still counts as a good sign. Vukicevic carried the offense almost single-handedly in both the semifinal and the bronze medal game, and in each one it was his scoring run that pulled Serbia back into contention when the opponent looked out of reach. Djordjevic was there beside him in the decisive moments, hitting two-pointers when it mattered most, exactly the kind of player 3x3 basketball demands: someone ready to take the shot when the pressure is highest.

Fourth place stings, especially knowing that both knockout games were decided only in their final possessions. Still, the U23 team leaves Wuhan with clear proof that it has a player to build the next cycle around, and after wins over Kazakhstan, Tonga and France, plus two matches decided by the smallest of margins against Lithuania and Australia, it is hard to call this tournament a weak one. Serbia was missing only the last possession that mattered.