Poowong basketballer brings home bronze from World Cup

A POOWONG basketballer has helped Australia claim bronze at the World University 3x3 Basketball Championship in Brazil.

Joshua McNally captained the University of Melbourne team to a 21-12 victory over the University of Valencia in the bronze medal match at the FISU 3x3 World Cup in Brasilia on November 11.

McNally said representing Australia on the world stage was a dream come true.
"Travelling overseas to play basketball has been a dream of mine since I was a kid and first started playing basketball at Poowong," he said.

"I loved being a part of this team, it was a lot of fun."

The achievement was made more remarkable by the fact McNally and his three teammates had only taken up the 3x3 format this year.

"I haven't been playing it for very long. I never thought we would go that far but we also worked hard for this and I'm proud of what we have accomplished," he said.

The team qualified for the World Cup after winning the UniSport 3x3 Basketball Nationals and the Oceania Qualifiers in Auckland.

In Brazil they faced the reigning champions Vytautas Magnus University from Lithuania in their opening match and fell 12-21 to the eventual winners.

The team bounced back to beat Mexico 17-16, Uganda 16-12 and Kenya 21-19 before losing in overtime to host nation Brazil 15-16 in the semi-final.

McNally is completing a Master of Teaching at the University of Melbourne.