Corvinus basketball players achieved a great feat at the European University Games

With all the players practically making their debut in the 3×3 section, our boys were the only Hungarian team from their group to win and go through at the 3×3 basketball tournament of the European University Games in Debrecen.  

The team was placed in a formidable group with rivals from Lithuania, Spain, Slovenia and Croatia.  It took a couple of games for the boys to get used to the game, the toughness, and they lost their first 3 games easily. After that, however, Csaba Vladár’s side pulled off two great feats, first against Spain and then Croatia, to progress. The boys were up against a well-constructed French side in the last eight, and they were up against it too, but they were beaten in a high quality, high tempo, high tempo encounter, but still far above expectations – well done boys!   

Group D: 

Sumen University (Bulgaria) – Corvinus University 21-10 

Corvinus: Galambos 5/4, Csík 4, Béres 1.  

The “Bulgarian brigade” led 6-2 and then 10-4 against our team, which made its debut in the section, a bit disappointed. Our rival led throughout and won for sure. 

Vytatutas Magnus University (Lithuania) – Corvinus University 22-13 

Corvinus: Csík 6/2, Béres, Radics 3-3 Galambos 1.  

The Lithuanian team, which has played a dominant role in university basketball in both disciplines for many years, played a great game against the Lithuanian team, 7-3. Then the Baltic team shook themselves and turned the game around with a 6-1 run near the halfway mark, and in the second half of the game they clearly had their way and won for sure.  

Corvinus University – University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) 7-21 

Corvinus: Csík 4/2, Galambos 2/2, Radics 1.  

In the first match of the second day of play against our team, which had 2 losses after the first day, the Slovenian team, which had been in control of the game all the time, started with a 3-0 lead, then led 10-3 and 17-4 and won confidently. At this stage, our team, with 3 straight losses, seemed to be making a short “debut visit” to the 3×3 section.  

Alicante University (Spain) – Corvinus University 13-21 

Corvinus: Csík 6/2, Radics 6, Galambos 5/2, Béres 4/2.  

The boys started with a great 4-0 lead, but the Spanish team quickly caught up to 6-5. But then the team renewed with a great team play, and with a 6-0 run the team took a big lead, playing smart and sharing the “sweet burden” of basketball with good shooting form. 

Group D: 

Corvinus University – Split University (Croatia) 21-20 

Corvinus: Radics 6, Béres, Galambos 5/4, 5/4, Csík 5.  

Our boys went into the game knowing that after beating their rivals from Spain, they could advance from their group with another possible bravo. Perhaps because of this knowledge, the boys were a bit cramped in the first minutes, the Croats, 4-1 and then 9-5 up. But in the middle of the period, the long range shots started to fall, the boys caught the thread and with again a united team play, not only turned the game around with a great 12-2, but also pulled away by 6 points. In the break, one of the Croatian boys started to hit from long range and at 20-20 Split caught up with Corvinus, but thanks to Richárd Csík, the last word went to the Hungarian team, which won another valuable victory and thus advanced from the group. Unfortunately, none of the Hungarian teams in the other groups managed to do so, so as a rookie team we were the best team in the European University

Round of 16:  

University of Nantes (France) – Corvinus University 21-19 

Corvinus: Radics 10/4, Csík 8/2, Béres 2/2.  

The French team, with its players of great physical talent, was waiting for our team, a newcomer in the section, but improving match by match and winning brilliantly. The team started 3-1 with a burst of attacks and made changes after almost every action, causing their opponents no little confusion. The Frenchmen built on their positional play under the basket and rebounding to turn the game around with a 4-0 run. The capital team did not break and equalized quickly, but they could not hold on to the opponent’s left-handed player who made a huge dunk from the break. Nantes went 2 up again when Radics Gerzson shot over his defender’s hands from the corner for a bravura 2-point basket. This galvanized Corvinus, Richárd Csík showing all the “genres” of basket making to give his team a 3-point lead. The French, who were literally going from strength to strength, responded with a 6-0 run. Another long range hit by Radics added to the excitement. The last 2 minutes started with a draw. Corvinus played smarter and better as a team, but in the end the French team seemed to be unable to cope with the “air superiority”, because they got the rebounds back and bagged another one to take a 2-point lead. Although Radics flashed again, Benedek Béres scored a brilliant long range basket to level the score again, but the last word was the French team’s in the form of another close basket, so they won the game against the heroic Corvinus.