Like the women, Austria’s male team also made it into the quarter-finals at the 3×3 basketball world championships on Vienna’s Rathausplatz. After the group phase, the team from the host country had to go into a play-in duel with runner-up Lithuania. Against the team from the established basketball country, there was a 22:18 win against the team from the designated basketball country with strong support from the public before the end of the season. Quarter-final opponent is Serbia.
Among the Austrians, Mathias Linortner shone with a number of long-range goals, each of which was rewarded with two points. The last basket of the game also went to his account. “We’re still a young team, we make a lot of mistakes,” said teammate Nico Kaltenbrunner in an ORF interview. “But we also showed heart and showed what we’re made of.”
Everything is possible against the favored Serbs, world and European champions. “They have been very dominant in recent years, but we believe in it.” Today at 9.40 p.m. the semi-finals will be played USA Play-in Winners.