SWITZERLAND’S Lugano romped off with the FIBA 3×3 Manila Challenger championship as SBP-Mandaluyong emerged the best-performing Philippine crew at eighth place.
Unbeaten since group play, Lugano put the finishing touches to a perfect run with a 21-19 upset of Serbia’s top-seeded UB in Sunday’s thrilling finale at Ayala Malls Manila Bay in Parañaque City.
Eventual MVP Mike Efevberha knocked down a heavily-defended pump-fake two-point bomb to clinch it for the sixth-seeded Swiss side off a 19-19 count versus the heavily-favored Serbian outfit.
Efevberha and his pals Adris Jimenez, Bikramjit Gill and Westher Molteni banked $20,000 after this feat highlighted by a spotless 5-0 card and a tournament-best 104 points and led the advance to the World Tour Macau Masters set for Oct. 18 and 19. They’re joined by runner-up UB (4-1 and 97 points) as well as Taipei’s WanBao, which took third with 3-1 and 78 points.
It was WanBao, the seventh-seeded crew beefed up by European dynamos Petar Evanovic and Dorde Semeunivic, that earlier gave No. 12 Mandaluyong, the last Filipino standing in the two-day competition, the boot in the quarterfinal round, 21-17.
The quartet of Malick Diouf, Zedjay Etulle, Jeff Manday and Joseph Sedurifa trailed early, 3-9, but rallied to within 17-20. That was as far as they could go in the battle for a semis ticket, though, as the Taiwanese ended it on Hsin-wei Wang’s winner.
Senegalese Diouf finished with nine points and seven rebounds as Manday chipped in four and Etulle and Sedurifa had two apiece in the gutsy stand against a WanBao
Mandaluyong earlier split its two assignments in Saturday’s Pool A action, losing to UB, 13-16 but rebounding with a 13-12 nailbiter over Bahran’s Seef on Diouf’s last-second bucket to salvage a ticket to the Last-8.
The two other Pinoy teams failed to advance to the KO rounds. Terrence Romeo-led Manila Melmac went winless in Pool B against China’s Chongming (11-21) and Lugano (13-21) to bow out while wild card Cavite HCG failed to hurdle the Qualifying Draw against Taipei WanBao (6-21) and Singapore (15-16).
Manila placed 11th in the final standings with 24 points ahead of fellow winless Seef (21). Cavite was 15th and last. — Olmin Leyba
