CEBU CITY, Philippines — Tokyo Olympics 3×3 gold medalists Team Riga of Latvia survived a tough game of the world no.3 and top seed Antwerp of Belgium before scoring a 21-19 decision to bag the USD $40,000 champions prize of the Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters 2022 at the SM Seaside Mountain View on Sunday evening.
The Latvian were quick to dominate the game, posting a 7-1 lead which they held after a slow start.
Antwerp however could not be denied as they managed to make the match interesting as Thibaut Vervoort displayed the touch that made him the champion in the shootout competition to pull within 6-7.
However, Riga did regain composure and scored 7-3 blitz to erect a 14-9 lead at the 3:45 mark of the game.
The Belgians however were not yet done as they countered with its own 8-0 rally to take the lead for the first time 17-14 with 1:23 left to play.
Nauris Miezis then scored five straight points as Riga regained the lead, 19-17, 46 seconds remaining in the game.
Vervoort was given the chance to tie the game for Antwerp once more with a trip to the free throw line, but he could only sink the second attempt as Meizis put the reigning Olympics champions within a point from winning the game.
Nick Celis gave Antwerp its last point and Miezis put the game away after sinking the second free throw at the 4.8 seconds mark.
Meizis who held the Latvians together in time of crisis finished with a game high 10 points and was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and received a Maurice Lacroix, a luxury Swiss watch, for his achievement.
Riga however is not new to winning in the Philippine soil as they also won the Manila Challenger in 2019, on their way to winning the Olympic gold medal two years later.
Earlier, Antwerp found Saitama Alphas of Japan a tough challenger before pulling a 21-19 win in the quarterfinal round before easily disposing Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy 21-11 in the semifinal game while Riga had an easy workout against Lausanne Sports of Switzerland 21-13 in the quarterfinal round and was stretched to the max against the Amsterdam Hi-Pro of The Netherlands, 21-18, in the semis.
Ulaanbaatar defeated Utsonomiya BREX of Japan 21-17 in their quarterfinal game while Amsterdam booted Lausanne Sports of Switzerland 21-14 in their own quarterfinal match.
Meanwhile, Thibaut Vervoort of Antwerp won the shootout contest after scoring 14 points. Vervoort defeated the other top qualifiers from Saturday’s elimination – Mac Tallo of Cebu Chooks with 12 points, Steven Sir of Team Ulaanbaatar of Mongolia (13) and Chico Lanete of Manila Chooks (9 points). Vervoort pocketed US $500 for his performance.
The Cebu Masters slam dunk title on the other hand, was won by Poland’s Piotr “Grabo” Grabowski who defeated Filipino ace dunker David “Air” Carlos in the final round.
The contest was stretched to the final third dunk as Carlos put up a strong resistance, including a “scorpion dunk” that earned him a perfect 30 points on the second round.
Carlos executed a crafty bouncing tomahawk dunk over six back of six human obstacles. But he only earned 27 points for that act. Grabowski came up with his own version of sit-mid-air slammer that earned him the maximum points to win the US $4000 cash prize. RCM
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