Bordeaux, France (July 22, 2023) – Team Miami qualified for the Cebu Masters event with a second-place finish at Bordeaux Challenger on Saturday. The Americans fell in a heartbreaker to Paris in the finals, 21-18. It’s the best finish by a USA Basketball World Tour team this season.
After charging through pool play on Friday with wins over Montreaux (22-10) and Futian (21-16), the United States beat Lausanne in the quarterfinals and Ub Huishan NE semifinals, before falling to Paris in the finals.
In the finals, Team Miami ran into a red-hot Paris team who shot 54 percent from the field, including 6-for-12 from two-point range. Team Miami never led, but fought back from an early five-point deficit to tie the game at 14 with five minutes remaining on a Dylan Travis two-pointer. After Paris went on a 4-0 run, the U.S. pulled the game back to 20-18 after Kareem Maddox scored four of his six total points on a 4-2 run for Team Miami. Paris converted on their first game-point to take the title. Travis led Team Miami in scoring with seven points.
To advance to the finals, Team Miami took down Ub Huishan NE, the World Tour’s No. 1 team, 21-19. Miami didn’t lead for the first five minutes of the game until Jimmer Fredette drove to put his team up 9-8. After a Serbian response, the U.S. squad went on a 5-1 run, capped by a Maddox dunk to put Team Miami up 14-10. Ub answered with a run of their own to go up 15-14, but with just over two minutes remaining, Maddox tied the game and Fredette followed with a 2-pointer from the right wing to put Miami back into the lead. The Americans didn’t trail again, but Ub tied the game twice more before Maddox advanced his team to the finals on an offensive rebound putback. Maddox (nine points) and Fredette (eight) led the way for Team Miami.
In the quarterfinals, Team Miami got past Lausanne, 22-15. After Travis hit a two-pointer twenty seconds into the game, the American team never trailed. Team Miami led by as many as eight points, and was never threatened after outscoring Lausanne 10-3 in the game’s first 2:30. Fredette and Maddox led in scoring with eight and seven, respectively.
With the top three finish, Team Miami qualified for the Cebu Masters event, set for Sept. 23-24 in the Philippines. They will take the court next at the Sukhbaatar Challenger Aug. 12-13 in Sukhbaatar, Mongolia.