Philippines pummels Brazil in rousing FIBA 3x3 start

BOCAUE – It’s practically an all-Philippine show as Christian Standhardinger and his teammates crushed Brazil, 15-7, in their initial outing in the FIBA 3x3 World Cup at the Philippine Arena here Saturday.

All PBA stars showing their stuff on 3x3 play, Standhardinger, Troy Rosario, Stanley Pringle and RR Pogoy pulled off a wire-to-wire win over William Evangelista, Marcellus Sarmento, Carlos Silva and Luiz Felipe Soriani to the delight of a good home crowd that braved a stormy Saturday.

With their versatile plays, the Filipinos raced to an early 8-1 lead and were hardly threatened on the way to the comfortable eight-point triumph and the provisional lead in Pool C.

Team Philippines enjoyed a well-balanced offense with Pringle, Pogoy and Rosario firing four points each and Standhardinger adding three.

They hit the Brazilians from various fronts, with Pogoy knocking down shots from beyond the arc, Pringle scoring on dazzling drives, and both Standhardinger and Rosario on powerful post plays.

The Brazilians were able to make a run only when the Filipinos relaxed a bit after making it 11-2 with four minutes left to play.

After the Brazilians got to within five, 6-11, Rosario and Pringle strung up four straight markers to wild cheers from the home crowd.

The Filipinos showed tremendous savvy that they sent the Brazilians to penalty situation barely three minutes into the 10-minute game.

Earlier, Serbia beat out Netherlands, 21-17, in a tough match between the 2017 World Cup title protagonists.

Dusan Bulut, Dejan Majstorovic, Marko Savic and Stefan Stojacic pulled through in their grudge match for the early lead in Pool A.

The Netherlands, Romania and Kyrgyzstan split their opening matches in the 2018 World Cup presented by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.

In women’s play, titleholder Russia and former two-time champ United States made mincemeat of both their first two opponents in Pool C.

Russians Anna Leshkovtseva, Anastasia Logunuva, Liudmila Sapova and Alexandra Stolyar crushed the Ugandan side, 22-8, then dumped the Andorra squad, 21-9, while Americans Erin Boley, Otiona Gildon, Ruthy Hebard and Sabrina Ionescu toyed with the Iranian team, 21-7, then overpowered the Andorrans, 21-6.

Uganda split its games as it bounced back with an 18-10 win over Iran after its 14-point loss to Russia.

Filipinas Afril Bernardino, Janine Pontejos, Jack Danielle Animan and Gemma Miranda, who dropped their first two games in Pool D to the Netherlands and Germany, still hope to pull a surprise in going up against Spain at 4:20 p.m. then versus Hungary at 7 p.m. Sunday.