Cebu Chooks! advanced to the knockout stages of the 2022 FIBA 3×3 Penang Challenger with an 18-15 win over Zavkhan MMC Energy Saturday at Queensbay Mall in Malaysia.
With the win, Cebu dealt Zavkhan its second loss in Pool A as the Mongolian squad also lost to Liman earlier in the day, 21-11 (8:11). Cebu and Liman will dispute top seed in the pool later in the day at 6:50 PM.
“It’s a good start for our Cebu team and for Coach Chico (Lanete). They showed great heart in overcoming a slow start against their archrivals,” said Chooks-to-Go president Ronald Mascariñas.
Zavkhan raced to a 5-0 start to start the game before Cebu was able to knot the count at 8-all.
Then Mac Tallo took charge.
The country’s top 3×3 player buried five deuces in the contest to keep Zavkhan at bay.
Tallo wound up with 12 points while Brandon Ramirez and Zach Huang added four and two points, respectively.
Avirmed Lhagvaa paced Zavkhan with six points.
