Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26) — The Aldin Ayo-coached Manila squad failed on Friday to advance in the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Doha Masters 2021 main draw despite winning one of its two games in the qualifying round.
Manila Chooks TM is bracketed with Austria-based Graz team and host Doha in the qualifying draw, where the top team will play in Pool D in the main draw with American 3×3 squads NY Harlem and Princeton. Graz earned the main draw slot after beating Manila and Doha in the qualifying games.
The Filipinos showed promise in the early part of its first game against Graz as Chico Lanete, Mac Tallo, and Dennis Santos clicked their shots to post an 8-4 lead. But the Austrians made a 12-3 scoring run to maintain its hold until the final buzzer, walking away with a 22-17 win.
In their next game, Lanete saved the day for the Filipinos with a buzzer-beater shot in the overtime period as Manila edged Doha, 21-20.
The Qataris looked to dominate the game early as they held an 8-2 lead in the first three minutes of action. Lanete and Santos converted on their shots to narrow Doha’s lead but they were answered back by the pair of Souley Ndour and Abdelrahman Yehia.
In the 3:38 mark, former pros Tallo and Lanete each scored a point for the game’s first deadlock at 14 all. A minute after, Santos converted a long two-point shot to again tie the game at 16. The game went into overtime at 19-all with a lay-up from Tallo and a missed hook shot by Ndour as time expired.
Doha’s Faisal Abuissa made a contested shot in the paint to put the hosts in the driver seat, 20-19, in the extension period. But Lanete recovered from a blocked attempt and faked Abuissa into the basket to nail the buzzer-beating winning shot from the left corner.
Graz then beat Doha, 22-5, to complete a sweep of the qualifiers and advance to the main draw of the tournament.
Former University of Santo Tomas cager Zachary Huang is the other member of the Manila Chooks TM squad.
