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MANILA: A tall and talented Serbian squad needed to play its hardest before turning back a gritty Philippine side in the Fiba 3X3 World Tour Manila Masters on Sunday night.
NoviSad AlWahad trimmed the Philippines’ Manila North squad, 21-14, underlining its tag as the reigning World Champion but not after being pushed hard by the Filipinos at the jampacked Robinson’s Place in Manila.
Calvin Abueva, Karl Dehesa, Vic Manuel and amateur Troy Rosario trailed early, 1-7, and never recovered.
The hardy Filipinos, though, earned some measure of consolation by scoring the most points against NoviSad the entire tournament.
“They have the moves, they have great set plays. That’s why they are the reigning world champions,” said the 6-foot-1 Abueva. “But we scored 14 points against them, and that says a lot.
“We did all we could and we are proud of our finish.”
Winding up second guaranteed the Filipinos of a slot in the World Final together with NoviSad.
Terrence Romeo, who bannered Manila South, was adjudged the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Manila South and Romeo were dethroned in the Final Four after losing to Manila South, 21-19, earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas will announce anytime on Monday the pool of candidates from where the Gilas Pilipinas members will come from.
From a reported original list of 26 players, coach Tab Baldwin will be making the announcement of no more than 16 players, unless SBP’s pleas to the other candidates are heeded.
Sources familiar to what is happening with the Gilas Pilipinas pool told Arab News on Sunday afternoon that the SBP is exerting all means to convince several PBA superstars to reconsider their decision of begging off from inclusion.
Among them are June Mar Fajardo and Marcio Lassiter of San Miguel Beer, Paul Lee of Rain or Shine, Marc Pingris of Star and LA Tenorio of Barangay Ginebra.
Fajardo is citing plantar fasciaitis on both feet as the reason, though the same SBP source said that they will make a last-ditch effort to get a commitment from the 6-foot-10 San Miguel cornerstone to make a sacrifice for flag and country.
Lee is in the United States and is due back in the country this week.
But a different source said that the reason why Lee won’t be playing for the Philippines is because the 6-foot point guard has not gotten the go-signal from Rain or Shine owners.
Rain or Shine had traditionally been one of the teams that is most supportive of the national program. It is unclear why management has suddenly refused to lend Lee but is giving defensive specialist Gabe Norwood to Gilas yet again.
Pingris reportedly talked to Baldwin last week saying that he will be in France to meet with his French father. The Star power forward said that he will be back only in the third week of the month and will miss a lot of practices.
Practice starts Monday night at the Meralco gym in Pasig.
In a related development, naturalized player Andray Blatche arrived in the Philippines on Sunday night and will join the Nationals in their first practice at 8 p.m. on Monday.