After six rounds of exciting basketball action this year, the Youthtown 3×3 Quest Tour is about to reach its thrilling conclusion – with the Tour Final set to be held this Saturday 23 April 2022 at Auckland’s Eventfinda Stadium.
The summer tour has seen BBNZ visiting six locations around the country between January and March 2022, with the winners of the Open Men’s Grade at any of these regional events eligible to play in Saturday’s Final.
Eight teams will be in action on the day, with the event also doubling as a 2022 World Tour Qualifier Final; meaning the winning team is eligible to travel to the Philippines at the end of next month to participate in the Manila leg of the FIBA 3×3 World Tour.
One of the teams in the running is Lincoln Blue, who won the Christchurch leg of the Quest Tour to earn a place in the Finals. Lincoln Blue’s Quinn Lavery says he is looking forward to competing in his first ever 3×3 Quest Tour Final – with a bit of help from two of his siblings.
“I’m playing in a team with my two brothers Karesse and Tanae, and with Benji [Freeman] who lived with us for two years,” says Lavery.
“While this is my first time in the Quest Tour, Tanae and I grew up watching our older brother Karesse play, we’re roughly the same age so we’ve always played together.
“The chemistry is all there with us and we know how Karesse plays – so it just works.”
Lavery says that while it would be great to win the Final and head to Manila, for him the experience is just as much about having fun and playing basketball with his brothers.
“We went into it for a bit of fun really, as Karesse and myself haven’t played for a while and just thought we could win the Christchurch leg as a family team – which we did.
“It’d be cool to go to the World Tour, but that depends on how we play on Saturday against some tough competition.”
BBNZ GM Events, David Huxford says that spectators are welcome to attend with free entry throughout the day.
“It’s been a great 3×3 Quest Tour this year and we’ve seen some real talent in these games, from emerging NBL players to Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns,” says Huxford.
Now that we’re in the Orange setting, we encourage spectators to come along to Eventfinda Stadium this Saturday to watch the action; it’s going to be a battle between these eight teams, with the winner graduating to the world stage at the FIBA 3×3 World Tour in Manila.”
The Youthtown 3×3 Quest Tour is being held at Eventfinda Stadium in Auckland, from 12-4pm on Saturday 23 April 2022.
The Final will also be streamed live via Sky Sport Next at https://tinyurl.com/363vcucf
Youthtown 3×3 Quest Tour Teams
BNL BLACK: Patrick Freeman, Cairo Leong, Josh Crowley Nepia, Arthur Pilcher
BUCKYS: Samuel Aruwa, Jayden Bezzant, Reuben Fitzgerald, Anamata Haku
CB3.0: Denhym Brooke, Ben Castle, Zachary Easthope, Chris McIntosh
CERKO: Chris Bidois, Erkan Kivilcim, Jeremy McIntosh, Rico Nelson
COOKIE TIME: Te Rokurangi Bluegum, Piripi Matthews, Robert Neho, Cole Scott
KRISPY 3’S: Theo Hurdley, Tamakari Vercoe-Kameta, Mikaere Watene, Alex Yang
LINCOLN BLUE: Benji Freeman, Karesse Lavery, Quinn Lavery, Tanae Lavery
SCAM: Adam Dunstan, Anthony Jones, Jacob Te Kotiri Walsh, Connor Woodbridge
