BY JONAS TERRADO
THE Philippines ruled the inaugural men’s and women’s 3×3 competitions with convincing victories Monday in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at The Arena in San Juan.
PBA players CJ Perez, Mo Tautuaa, Chris Newsome and Jason Perkins downed Indonesia, 21-9, for the men’s gold while Afril Bernardino, Jack Animam, Janine Pontejos and Clare Castro exacted revenge on Thailand, 17-13, to rule the distaff side.
Both teams had contrasting runs to the gold, with the men’s squad winning all eight matches and the women’s side having to overcome losing to Thailand in overtime, 22-20, during the last game of the preliminaries.
Playing the starring roles in the finals were Perez and Bernardino, who dazzled the predominantly Filipino crowd with the individual skills.
Perez, rookie star of the Columbian Dyip, scored nine points, including a right-handed dunk over an Indonesian defender that sent loud cheers a predominantly Filipino crowd.
His performance was perhaps a fitting conclusion to a memorable 2019 for Perez, who aside from emerging as one of the strong candidates for the PBA Rookie of the Year but also made a strong impression for Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA World Cup in China.
Bernardino made majority of her 10 points by the attacking lane as the Philippines was able to take control after trailing for the final time at 5-4.
Behind Bernardino, the Philippines bagged its first gold in any women’s basketball competitions of the biennial meet.
A historic gold in the standard five-on-five event will be doubly sweet for the national cagebelles, who will start their campaign on Thursday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Meantime, Gilas coach Tim Cone is weighing his options whether to tap center Greg Slaughter or guard Scottie Thompson to replace Roger Pogoy.
Two days before the opening game of the national team against Singapore, the veteran mentor has yet to name Pogoy’s replacement after the latter injured his back in a PBA game last week. (Waylon Galvez)
