Cebu Chooks will be advancing to the knockout stages of the 2022 FIBA 3×3 Penang Challenger after booting out rival Zavkhan MMC Energy, 18-15, Saturday at Queensbay Mall in Malaysia.
With the win, Cebu dealt Zavkhan its second loss in Pool A as the Mongolian squad also lost to Liman earlier in the day, 21-11 (8:11). Cebu and Liman will dispute top seed in the pool later in the day at 6:50 PM.
“It’s a good start for our Cebu team and for Coach Chico (Lanete). They showed great heart in overcoming a slow start against their archrivals,” said Chooks-to-Go president Ronald Mascariñas.
Zavkhan raced to a 5-0 start to start the game before Cebu was able to knot things up at 8-all.
Then Mac Tallo took charge.
The country’s top 3×3 player buried five deuces in the contest to keep Zavkhan at bay.
Tallo wound up with 12 points while Brandon Ramirez and Zach Huang added four and two points, respectively.
Avirmed Lhagvaa paced Zavkhan with six points.
“Kahit nakapasok na kami sa next round, gagawin namin ang lahat against Liman,” said head coach Lanete. “Malalaman namin kung nasan na kami sa larong ‘yun.”
The FIBA 3×3 Penang Challenger is a qualifier for the 2022 FIBA 3×3 World Tour Paris Masters. It also has a US$40,000 prize pool with the top six teams going “in the money” (ITM).
The Scores:
Cebu 18 – Tallo 12, Ramirez 4, Huang 2, Tolentino 0.
Zavkhan 15 – Lhagvaa 6, Bayarsaikhan 4, Tsermaa 3, Khureltogoo 2.
