{"id":12229,"date":"2026-04-26T20:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=12229"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:16:19","slug":"liman-claim-utsunomiya-opener-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/liman-claim-utsunomiya-opener-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Liman claim Utsunomiya Opener title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Serbia&#8217;s Liman captured the FIBA 3&#215;3 World Tour Utsunomiya Opener title after defeating Skyliners of Germany, 21-15, at the Futaarayama Jinja Shrine to win the first stop of the new season.<br><br>Led by tournament MVP Andreja Milutinovic, Liman delivered a composed performance in the final, controlling the game with efficient scoring and defensive pressure to secure the trophy.<br><br>Liman set the tone early in the Final, building an 8-3 lead with strong shot-making before extending the margin to 12-4 midway through the contest.<br><br>Despite a response from Skyliners, who played their last two games without injured Leon Fertig, Liman maintained control. Back-to-back two-pointers from Niklas Kropp briefly cut the deficit, but Liman answered through key buckets, including a decisive two-pointer from Nemanja Zigon.<br><br>Milutinovic sealed the win with a putback to close the game at 21-15, capping a dominant run throughout the tournament.<br><br>Liman advanced to the Final with a commanding Semi-Finals performance and continued the same momentum from the Quarter-Finals.<br><br>In the Quarter-Finals, they delivered one of the most decisive results of the day, defeating defending champions Miami of the USA, 20-8. Milutinovic led the way with 11 points, including consecutive two-pointers that broke the game open.<br><br>Milutinovic was named Most Valuable Player after leading Liman throughout the tournament with consistent scoring and shot-making. His performance in the knockout rounds, including his explosive Quarter-Finals display and a composed showing in the Final, underlined his importance to Liman&#8217;s title run.<br><br>Fans were also treated to standout performances in the event&#8217;s side competitions.<br><br>Hometown favorite Souleymane Coulibaly (Utsunomiya) won the Shootout Contest with 14 points, drawing strong support from the local crowd.<br><br>In the Dunk Contest, Dmitry &#8220;Smoove&#8221; Krivenko delivered a series of high-level finishes, earning perfect scores on his final three dunks to take the title.<br><br>The event marked a milestone for the host city, celebrating a decade of 3&#215;3 basketball in Utsunomiya, as well as the 130th anniversary of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the opening stop complete, teams now turn their focus to the next events on the FIBA 3&#215;3 World Tour 2026, as the race toward the World Tour Final continues. The next World Tour stop happens in Chengdu, China from May 2-3.<br><br><strong>Final Standings<\/strong><br><br>1. Liman SRB<br>2. Skyliners GER<br>3. Ub SRB<br>4. Antwerp BEL<br>5. Amsterdam <em>RABOBANK<\/em> NED<br>6. Shanghai CHN<br>7. Miami USA<br>8. Raudondvaris <em>Hoptrans<\/em> LTU<br>9. Toulouse FRA<br>10. Vienna AUT<br>11. Taipei <em>WanBao<\/em> TPE<br>12. Utsunomiya JPN<br>13. Shinagawa JPN<br>14. Hiratsuka JPN<br><br><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serbia&#8217;s Liman captured the FIBA 3&#215;3 World Tour Utsunomiya Opener title after defeating Skyliners of Germany, 21-15, at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[94,52],"class_list":["post-12229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-3-x-3","tag-basketball"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3.jpg",1800,1013,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3.jpg",1800,1013,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/category\/international\/\" rel=\"category tag\">International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Liman-3-x-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12231,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229\/revisions\/12231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}