By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Philippine 3×3 squad finally reaped the fruits of their labor after cracking into the top 20 of the FIBA world rankings.
Previously ranked at no. 27, the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 team is now the world’s no. 18 ranked nation after boosting their points during the recently concluded 2022 Manila Masters.
The Philippines garnered a total of 247,158 points after the Manila Masters with a portion of that coming from their automatic score as the host nation.
“We already know the formula for us to reach the OQT having done so during the last Olympic cycle. Maintaining our rank will be relatively easy. The goal now is to turn our players into world-class athletes,” said Chooks-to-Go president Ronald Mascariñas.
It was also a favorable outing for the two participating teams of the PHL after Mac Tallo and the Cebu Chooks made it into the playoffs the same as Chico Lanete’s Manila Chooks team.
Despite going against the top 3×3 teams of the world, Tallo, the no.1 3×3 player of the PHL, led Cebu against Zavkhan MMC Energy of Mongolia to a thrilling 21-19 win to earn a ticket to the playoffs.
Tallo saved the day for the Cebu Chooks after sinking the go-ahead basket with 40 seconds left to put his team up by a deuce.
However, the Cebu Chooks squad couldn’t sustain their fine play and got outplayed by the veteran 3×3 team Liman, 21-11, during the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Lanete and the Manila Chooks also impressed in their outing and powered his team against Zaisan MMC Energy, 21-19, during the battle for a playoff spot.
Lanete turned back the hands of time and torched Zaisan with his efficient outside shooting to finish the ball game with 12 big points including Manila’s last five.
During the quarterfinals, Manila suffered the same fate as Cebu after succumbing to a Mongolian team in the playoffs, 21-16.
