In the final of the "Masters" Winline Russian Championship 3x3 "Runa" defeated "Samara".
The first three "Masters" of season 2023 were marked by an unpredictable struggle within the top six. No one could win more than one stage (Inanomo, Bionord PRO and "Runa" were the triumphators), and five teams took part in the finals. Only Samara won twice, losing both times in the first-place finals.
Another matter is that the top six flatly refused to admit "outsiders" to their "high society". In today's fourth "Master" group A and B the same familiar faces turned out. True, there was one exception (albeit almost imperceptible to the naked eye): Bionord lost its place to Bionord PRO at the end of the first Master. Nevertheless, frankly speaking, the favourite was ex-Gagarin, starting from a more modest position in the Championship. The other 11 games in transition were won by teams from the two elite groups.
In general, there were a lot of people willing to change the composition of Groups A and B during the first four Masters. IBA (Egor Vavilov, Nikita Popov, Leonid Tarasov, Ivan Chiganov) joined them today. The Moscovites lost both games in their group the day before, but having made the proper conclusions, this time they won twice. They got the upper hand in the closing stages, based on character.
The first victim of IBA was HeliTab SKSO. In 6 starting minutes none of the opponents could lead by more than one (!) point, and then the Muscovites rushed to their first victory in the "Wizard". Their 6-1 spurt made it to +4 - 15:11 after Vavilov's two free throws. The Ural players were not confused, and soon evened the score. However in the end of the game they were again behind by 2 points, however a pair of Matvej Jan's assists allowed them to go into overtime. The second play came at the last second of regulation time! All the same, IBA came out on top in this win. Tarasov, the hero of the game (10 points on 9 made shots from 10!) gave his team an early lead. And then, after surviving two inaccurate long-range shots by his opponents, Babilov finished the game - 19-17.
The Muscovites had a solid lead in their meeting with Soyuz (11-6), but Khimki managed a 5-0 run to restore balance. This time, however, the finish was decided by IBA. With just a few seconds to play, Vavilov made the game winner deadlocked at +3. But a long-distance shot by Yury Tkachev, taken under the buzzer, had no impact on the outcome - 14-13.
The third game in Group D was not without a bright ending. Winline's 3x3 debutant Soyuz were within two points from their second successive victory - 19-17. However, the opponent made those "steps" (it took two). Jan made the score even with a long-range shot. On the next attack Danila Paukova's well-aimed shot from beyond the arc brought victory to HeliTab SKSO - 21:19.
In the other group, NNTU failed to get its first win in the Wizards. If in their game with Stella-Pro Nizhny Novgorod kept the intrigue almost to the end (they had 3 points, but lost 16-21), in their game with Khimki Power they lost without controversy, scoring 3 points less (7-21). On that score the Moscow region team took on the Ekaterinburg team (22-18). By the way, Khimki Power were by far the best of the top six. They won seven of their eight group-stage games in four of the Masters.
While the four "contenders" were preparing for the next transits, a real meat grinder began in the top six. The only elite player who didn't make it to the finals was Baikal. The capital team lost to Runa (13:18) and Bionord PRO (15:19). Overall, not much, but Baikal had no real chance to win at the end.
But the winners of the previous two Masters put on a real show to advance to the finals. In the final game, the Permians created a sizeable lead (13-8) in the first four minutes, but quickly lost it in less time, allowing 7 (!) points in a row. And then there was an exciting finish, in which each of the opponents took the lead, but no more than +1. In the last minute Alexander Zuev once again made the scoreboard even - 19:19. During their attack Fleece took a time-out, after which Ilya Sidorenko came on the floor instead of Sergey Kozlov. He was destined to become the executioner of Bionord PRO. After getting the ball from Andrey Kiselev, he shot fast from beyond the arc. And he made it - 21-19!
But it was nothing compared to what was going on in the other group. But at first nothing seemed to suggest a big score there: In the first game the PSC Bad Boys handily defeated Samara (17-12). The Volga club scored the last three points of the game. Had the St. Petersburg club known their value, they probably would have folded at the end of the game, preventing their opponent from cutting the deficit.
Their minds were already on the next game, against Inanomo. The teams were not particularly efficient, a scenario which benefited the champion. The Muscovites were satisfied with a 12-5 score after seven minutes. They had no trouble getting the game to a win (14-11).
But the modest score helped Samara. Despite the big loss to the bad guys, they had a real chance to advance to the finals. True, two requirements were needed for that to happen: to win by at least +2 and to score at least 16 points (Samara had the advantage with an identical batting average, since they were seeded higher than their opponent in this Masters). You wouldn't believe it, but the Samara players actually hit the bull's-eye, 17-15 in their favor. The drama didn't stop there either, when a safe 10-5 score for the Volga club turned into a 12-12 score in one minute. With 7.8 seconds left, Samara, 16-14 in favor, broke the law on Joshgun Aliev, who was awarded two free throws. Only the second was accurate. And Danila Chikarev made a free throw on the decisive play. However, Vladislav Karpov emerged from under the basket and led Volga club to its third Final in four Masters!
"Baikal (Ilya Bogdanov, Egor Gatin, Ivan Tsukanov, Maxim Shumkov) playfully confirmed their unofficial title of the "king of transits". He participated in every "Master" game and won 4 out of 4 of them. Today he didn't leave Khimki Power a single chance and defeated the Moscow Region team by double points, 22-11. Shumkov scored as many points as all his opponents combined.
Then came the sensation. What a sensation! The same IBA, which yesterday didn't even make it to the transits, defeated the Bad Boys. In a match in which the course of the struggle turned sharply 180 degrees twice. First the Muscovites led 5-1, then 7-2, after that they missed 7 (!) points in a row. They were in a very difficult situation with just over 3 minutes to go (8:11), but no more... We didn't let anything else slip by! But Vavilov shone, who scored 5 of the last 6 points for the Moscow team. 14:11 in favor of IBA, which will start the next "Master" in group A or B!
Bionord PRO (Alexander Zuev, Andrey Kiselev, Vladislav Perevalov, Dmitry Cheburkin) made their fans nervous: by the equator of the match with HeliTab SKSO was losing 8:9. But the second half was fantastic - 13:3 and 21:12 as a result! That wasn't half at all: The Permians scored 13 points in less than three and a half minutes.
The champion stayed true to himself. Playing with a significantly changed lineup from yesterday (Joshgun Aliev, Alexander Antonovsky, Konstantin Grekov, Alexander Pavlov), Inanomo led the entire game against Stella-Pro. True, not much at all. In the end it was only +2. Grekov made it all by himself: he converted the first free-throw, blurred the second, grabbed a rebound and scored on a layup - 19:15.
The final game was a replay of the previous one - "Runa" (Vladislav Evstafyev, Sergey Kozlov, Nikita Padun, Ilya Sidorenko) vs "Samara" (Vladislav Karpov, Viktor Kashin, Ivan Pyantsin, Danila Chikarev). And again it ended in favor of the Muscovites. Volga club who were playing without their main shooter Semen Debda was losing -6 (9:15), but still managed to come back. Several times they cut the deficit to one point and with 6.8 seconds left had a chance to win the stage - two free throws! Except this was the real drama of Kashin. At the key moment, he blurred both his attempts, and a quick foul on Sidorenko didn't help - two free throws made it 20-17 in favor of Runa! "Samara could hardly complain about their bad luck: the country has no equal in this championship in terms of number of final games (3 already), but none of them was won.
- Source: RBF
