Goal to send PH to Paris Olympic 3×3 through FIBA World Tours

“Our goal is to bring the Filipinos to play in the Paris Olympics. And by bringing the biggest (3×3) tournament of FIBA to the Philippines, improves our chances of getting a chance to play in the qualifying tournament for Paris Olympics,” BAVI President and Philippines 3×3 godfather Ronald Mascarinas said at the press conference at Radisson Blu Hotel this afternoon.

Mascariñas narrated that when FIBA announced that 3×3 will be in the Tokyo Olympics, the Philippines chances of getting there were very remote since the country was ranked no. 59 in the world back in 2019.

“Now we are ranked no. 21 in the world, that means we have an exceptionally good chance of making the Olympic Qualifying. We (BAVI) are supporting (3×3) basketball because it gives us hope and pride. That every time we win, be it on 5-on-5 or 3×3, we feel proud and happy,” added Mascariñas. 

On the other hand, Mascariñas revealed that bringing the tournament to Cebu was the right thing to do.

He said that in 2019 Chooks-to-Go earned the world’s biggest tournament held at the Sisters of Mary School Boys Town in Minglanilla. The tournament on January 12, 2019, gathered a total of 1,380 participants, erasing the previous record of 1,114. 

Mascariñas felt indebted to the show of support that the Cebuanos displayed in that event that he made sure the FIBA 3×3 World Tour will make a stop in Cebu, thus the Cebu Masters on October 1 & 2 at the SM Seaside City. 

And it will be meaningful as the team Cebu Chooks banners two Cebuano players, Mark Jayven “Mac” Tallo, who is currently ranked No.1 3×3 player in the Philippines and Zachary Huang, also ranked no.2 in the country. 

Tallo, helped the CIT-U Wildkittens win the 2009 CESAFI High School title and two College titles (2012 and 2014) with the Phinma-Southwestern University Cobras. He also won one Juniors and two Seniors MVP titles in that same year.

Huang meanwhile, was a vital cog for the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles Magical run in the Juniors Division circuit. He helped the Magis Eagles win two titles in Cesafi Juniors (2013 and 2014) competitions and was a member of the National Basketball Training Camp (NBTC) National Secondary Basketball Tournament champions in 2015. He was a perennial Mythical 5 Selection Team member at the CESAFI competition before he went to play with the UST Growling Tigers in the UAAP. 

The third player who can relate much with the Cebu basketball circuit is Cameroonian reinforcement Mike Harry Nzeusseu, who once played and helped the University of the Visayas steal the 2013 Collegiate Division title. 

The fourth member of the team is bigman Phil-Canadian Brandon Alfornso Ramirez.

The Manila Chooks on the other hand will field the promising wiry Cebuano bigman Dave Ando who will alongside playing-coach Chico Lanete, Dennis Santos, and Nigeria’s no.1 3×3 player Henry Frank Chukwuebuka Iloka. 

Lanete who also functions as coach-trainer of the two teams knows the urgency to put up a superior performance as they are playing in the hometown of three players.

“We did not waste time and went straight to training. We did view video records and we know what to do (now). We are preparing for a certain team because all teams (competing) are strong. And we hope that crowd will back us,” Lanete added. 

Tallo however set his eyes on the top seed, Belgian squad Antwerp, who beat them in the Dubai tournament.

“We would like to beat Antwerp. They defeated us in Dubai (2022 Fiba 3×3 Dubai Expo Super Quest), which was a very frustrating loss. Hopefully, our preparation is more than enough to beat them,” Tallo stressed.

 

The Chooks-to-Go Fiba 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters will also feature Team Riga of Latvia, Amsterdam Hi-PRO of The Netherlands, Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy of Mongolia, Lausanne Sport of Switzerland, Jeddah of Saudi Arabia, Sansar MMC Energy of Mongolia, Omaha 3Ball of USA, Utsunomiya BREX and Saitama ALPHAS of Japan, Doha QSC of Qatar, and Ludhiana INDBL of India. RCM