Russians clean up on court

Baku, June 27, AZERTAC Russia completed a golden double in the 3x3 basketball at the Baku 2015 European Games on Friday. The women handled the weight of expectation well to produce some accurate outside shooting and overcome Ukraine 22-17 in the final. "We had to win," said Mariia Cherepanova. "We knew that Russia won a lot of gold medals. We wanted to be on this list and give another gold medal to our country." The men then followed their lead to beat a much-fancied Spanish side 18-14, thanks in no small part to eight points from Aleksandr Pavlov. "Our advantage is speed," said Pavlov. "We are faster. They wanted to push us, they couldn’t, and we used our speed." A short-handed Serbia dealt with the dwindling impact of star player Dusan Domovic-Bulut, due to an injury sustained in the semi-final against Spain, to beat Slovenia 21-14 and claim the bronze medal in the men's competition. Slovenia also missed out on the podium in the women's competition as they went down 19-9 to Spain.