Overtimes and thrillers unfold in business as usual for the game that opens the curtain of each day’s program in the 3×3 Basketball Tournament of the 3rd Mediterranean Beach Games.

On Sunday, September 10th,  in the opening match, Kosovo defeated North Macedonia 14-12 in overtime, whose basket at the end of regular time was canceled, after protest, as late.

On Monday, September 11th, in the first game of Day 2, like déjà vu, Tunisia beat Slovenia 9-8 in overtime while at the end of regular time the two teams were tied 7-7.

After Mirlind Zekaj, the baton of clutch player and hero was taken by Mohamed Aziz MGhirbi who, as soon as the liberating sound of the final horn was heard, drowned in the hugs of his teammates.

“When the ball reached my hands I looked towards the basket and marked. We had said during the timeout that I would take over the decisive attack and that happened,” commented the scorer of Tunisia’s winning basket.

“This combination that we did for me to score is worked on in our training sessions and we apply it often. Fortunately, it also brought results today and we managed to recover from yesterday’s defeat by Algeria in a match in which we did ourselves an injustice. We are much better than what we showed on Sunday,” continued the 19-year-old player.

“It is no secret that we came to Heraklion with the aim of playing in the final and winning the gold medal. Two months ago we were crowned champions of Africa and indeed in our country, in the city of Hammamet, defeating Mali in the final. The people in Tunisia were delighted with this success and we want to continue our upward trajectory and offer more joys to our fans” concluded MGhirbi.