USA wins 2014 FIBA 3×3 World Championship over Russia
Enough postseason accolades to make your head spin kept South Carolina guard Tiffany Mitchell busy throughout the early part of the offseason. A trip to Russia and an undefeated record in the 2014 FIBA 3×3 World Championships kept the rising junior Mitchell busy over this past week.
Mitchell teamed up with SEC foe Cierra Burdick from the University of Tennessee as well as Notre Dame’s Jewell Loyd and Louisville’s Sara Hammond to form team Takeover, which competed against 23 other countries for a gold medal.
“It was a fun experience,” Mitchell said in a USA Basketball release. “I definitely learned a lot that I can take with me when I go back to school. It was a learning experience, and it was fun.”
Before Mitchell and Co. were able to don the red, white and blue uniforms, they had to knock off returning champs FST-Long Island, which claimed first place last year in the second FIBA 3×3 World Championships after defeating Estonia 21-12. Takeover bested FST-Long Island 21-15, sending them to Moscow, Russia for the four-day tournament.
Placed in Pool D, USA competed against five other countries to earn the right to move on to the Last 16 stage.
In the tournament, only one-half of the court is utilized, while the games last 10 minutes or first team to 21 points.
Each of USA’s first three games ended with the United States reaching 21 points, thus ending the game. The team thwarted Hungary 21-5 and Brazil 21-8 in the first day of the tournament.
The United States then bested Ukraine 21-10 in the first game of the second day, then encountered a bit of resistance from Spain, failing to reach the 21-point plateau for the first time. Mitchell’s squad prevailed, picking up a 16-6 victory over a Spain team that went 4-1 in group play. Argentina was the last team standing in the way of Team USA’s perfect group record, but they eventually fell victim to another offensive onslaught, led by Mitchell, taking a 21-11 loss.
After a 5-0 group record, the United States moved on to face Uruguay in the Last 16 round, but proved to have little difficulty, pushing their record to a 6-0 mark with a 19-6 victory.
A quarterfinal matchup with France later that day gave the United States the most trouble of the tournament as the team picked up their slimmest margin of victory in a 12-9 win. It was the second loss of the tournament for France, with their first coming at the hands of eventual runners-up Russia.
Team USA picked up an 18-14 win over Belgium on the fourth and final day of the tournament, which set up a final clash with Russia on their own court, reminiscent of “Rocky IV”.
With the sun setting over Moscow, the United States grabbed a lead over the home-court Russians, and watched as the time dwindled, eventually expiring as Team USA finished the tournament undefeated. The 15-8 win over Russia marked the second-lowest offensive output by the United States in the tournament.
While the United States did not seem to have too much difficulty with the teams they faced, Mitchell claimed the process was still a learning experience.
“I think I probably learned the most about leadership,” Mitchell said. “I know all of us are leaders on our teams back at home, and you could tell when we all came together, we all had that one goal. When everyone has one goal it makes it a lot easier to win.”
Mitchell earned Third-Team All-America honors from the Associated Press in April after garnering the SEC Player of the Year award for the 2013-14 season. She led the Gamecocks in many offensive categories, including total points with 527.