By JONAS TERRADO
Leg champions Purefoods and Sista were drawn to separate pools for the preliminary round of the PBA 3×3 Grand Finals slated Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Sista, which ruled the third leg, is joined by multi-time podium finisher Terrafirma and San Miguel Beer in Pool A while Leg 4 winner Purefoods is in Pool B with Pioneer and Barangay Ginebra.
Six matches in pool play will be held starting at 1 p.m. in the culminating event of the PBA’s first halfcourt tournament presented by 1Pacman party list of Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero.
The top two teams in each group will join Meralco, TNT, Limitless and Platinum Karaoke in the quarterfinals which will be held on the same day.
Meralco, TNT, Limitless and Platinum gained automatic spots in the knockout stage after emerging as the four best teams after the six legs.
Both Meralco and TNT produced 420 tour points, Limitless was third at 361 thanks to its title runs in the last two legs while Platinum was fourth with 360.
The champion takes home P750,000, runner-up gets P250,000 and the third placer secures P100,000.
Among the teams looking to add to their winnings to cap the first conference is TNT, which collected P260,000 for winning the inaugural leg, placing second twice and posting one third-place finish.
Meralco and Limitless have won P200,000 each, Purefoods at P130,000, Sista P100,000, followed by Platinum (P80,000), Terrafirma (P60,000) and Pioneer (P50,000).
