Philippines splits FIBA 3x3 opener

Canada leads pool C; Philippines, Russia, Mongolia tied at 1-1

BOCAUE, Philippines —The Philippines drew balanced scoring from Christian Standhardinger, Troy Rosario, Stanley Pringle and RR Pogoy to score a lopsided 15-7 win over Brazil but found Mongolia a hard nut to crack in the evening match to split its initial outing in the FIBA 3x3 World Cup at the Philippine Arena here yesterday.

Standhardinger, Rosario, Pringle and Pogoy pulled off a wire-to-wire win over William Evangelista, Marcellus Sarmento, Carlos Silva and Luiz Felipe Soriani to the thrill of a sizeable 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.

Team Phl, however, missed what could have been a twin-kill as it dropped a tight, physical game to a surprisingly tough Mongolian side,  17-21, later in the day.

The Mongolians pounced on crucial unsportsmanlike fouls committed by Rosario and Pogoy as they uncorked a closing 6-3 run to steal the game.

Canada scored a two-game sweep while the Philippines, Russia and Mongolia all settled for a 1-1 split on the first day of action in Pool C.

The Canadians outfought the Russians, 20-17, then bested the Mongolians, 21-15. The Russians later bounced back with a 20-16 win over the Brazilians.

Team Phl enjoyed a well-balanced offense with Pringle, Pogoy and Rosario firing four points each and Standhardinger adding three versus Brazil. Against Mongolia, Pringle top scored with six while Pogoy, Rosario and Standhardinger contributed four, four and three, respectively.

They hit the Brazilians from all angles, 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 The Netherlands, 21-17, in a tough match between the 2017 World Cup title protagonists for the early lead in Pool A of the event presented by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas. The Netherlands, Romania and Kyrgyzstan split their opening matches.

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

Russia crushed Uganda, 22-8, then dumped Andorra, 21-9, while the US toyed with Iran, 21-7, then overpowered Andorra, 21-6. Uganda bounced back with an 18-10 win over Iran.

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 off vs Spain at 4:20 p.m. and Hungary at 7 p.m. tonight.