Chooks To Go goes down to Iran

MANILA, Philippines — Chooks To Go-Pilipinas failed to contain the hot-shooting former LA Clipper Willie Warren and suffered a 66-87 loss to PetroChimi of Iran that relegated the Filipinos to third place in Group A at the close of the 2017 FIBA Asia Champions Cup preliminary round at the Chenzhou Sports Center in Chenzhou, China last night.

Warren scattered four three-pointers and a total of 30 points to send the Filipinos to a knockout quarterfinals battle with the Andray Blatche-reinforced defending champion China Kashgar team tomorrow.

The Iranians finished second in Group A and set a quarterfinals matchup versus Group B No. 3 Taipei Dacin Tigers.

The other Final Eight pairings pit BC Astana of Kazakhstan versus Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai and Sareyyet Ramallah-Palestine versus Al Riyadi-Lebanon.

The tourney takes a break today.

BC Astana and PetroChimi actually finished with identical 3-1 win-loss records in elims play, but the Kazakhs took Group A first-place honors on the winner-over-the-other rule. The Kazakhs suffered their lone defeat in the elims at the hands of the Filipinos.

Versus Petro-Chimi, Chooks To Go fell behind by a big margin on successive three-pointers by Warren and guard Sajjad Mashayekhi in the second period.

Behind the exploits of Kiefer Ravena and Isaiah Austin, the Filipinos rallied from 20 points down to come to within 10 midway through the fourth but failed to sustain their momentum and faded in the end.

The Iranians proved too tough to handle at the finish with their size and firepower and superb transition game.

Team Phl was led by Ravena and Austin with 20 points apiece.