Philippines falls short at FIBA 3x3 World Cup
THE Philippine team was shown the exit door at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup in Nantes, France, yesterday after it failed to sweep its Day 4 assignments.
Needed to come out with a shutout in its scheduled two games on the final day of the preliminary round after settling for a split in its fixtures two days back, the ChookstoGo-backed team of Kiefer Ravena, Jeron Teng, Kobe Paras and JR Quiñahan went 1-1 again in its trek back to the court against Slovenia and El Salvador, in that order, to settle for an overall record of 2-2 in Pool B, a win short of advancing to the next round
In the FIBA 3x3 World Cup, tournament format calls for the top two teams in each of the four pools moving on to the quarterfinals.
The end actually came early for Team Pilipinas as it fell to eventual pool top team Slovenia, 21-14, in its first game early yesterday morning.
The Filipinos got off to a rough start against a bigger and taller Slovenian side, going down 5- 0, which proved to be too much to overcome in the end.
Mr. Ravena sparked a mini run for the Philippines midway into the contest, but the closest they could get was four points, 15-11, with three minutes to go before Slovenia went for the closeout.
The former Ateneo King Eagle Ravena led the Philippines with seven points in the loss.
With their title hopes already nixed, the Filipinos played for pride against El Salvador, and delivered accordingly, winning, 21-14.
Against El Salvador, the Filipinos got off shaky once again but eventually found their groove.
The two teams battled backandforth until the Philippines made a telling run down the stretch behind Messrs. Ravena and Teng to create a considerable separation en route to the campaign-ending victory.
At 2-2, the Philippines placed third in Pool B behind Slovenia (40) and host France (3-1). Romania ended up at fourth place (1-3) and El Salvador last with a 0-4 record.
Also advancing in the quarterfinals after yesterday’s preliminaries were Ukraine (4-0) and Qatar (3-1) from Pool C.
Slovenia, France, Ukraine and Qatar joined early last eight qualifiers Serbia, the defending champion, and Russia from Pool A, and the Netherlands and United States from Pool D.
The eight remaining teams battle it out in the knockout rounds scheduled for late last night to early morning today to determine who gets the title of “best 3x3 team in the world.”
Quarterfinal matches will see Serbia taking on the United States, Ukraine versus France, Slovenia against Qatar, and the Netherlands battling Russia.