With the Gold’s Gym-Pasig Kings out for the third leg of the 2019 Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 Patriot’s Cup presented by Coca-Cola, the rest of the league are going all out to take advantage of this opportunity on Saturday, July 6 at the SM Muntinlupa Events Center.
The Kings, who are on top of the table with 170 points, are competing in the 2019 FIBA 3X3 Poitiers Challenger — a qualifier for the Lausanne World Tour Masters. They will still receive a minimum of 60 points for the leg depending on their finish in France.
One of the squads that are looking to take advantage of this are the Wilkins-Balanga Pure.
Balanga’s resident import Travis Franklin will make his local league debut, replacing Prince Orizu.
“We need to get the wins man,” said Franklin as Balanga is at the fourth spot with 160 points with three legs left.
The Max4-Birada Cebu, on the other hand, will field a complete squad after plugging in just three during the last leg. Cebu Shark Alfred Codilla replaced Darrell Menina while USJ-R Jaguars star Elmer Echavez completes Max4’s quartet.
The Phenom-Basilan Steel, who are tied with VetHealth-Delhi 3BL, though will not field their usual four as Roosevelt Adams sustained a right hamstring injury last weekend during the FIBA 3X3 Haining Challenger. Replacing Adams is Gab Dagangon, who will make his 3×3 debut.
Serving as a guest team for the leg is Gold’s Gym-Muntinlupa.
The team is headlined by Muntinlupa Cagers’ Biboy Enguio, who competed for Indonesia during the 2018 FIBA 3X3 World Cup. He will be joined by dunk artist David Carlos, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa standout Lloyd Cabeguin, and former Diliman College foreign student-athlete Tommy Lisika.
“I am very excited. This is the first time we are playing together and we hope to get the support of the Muntinlupa fans,” said Lisika, a 19-year-old big man out of Congo.
Leg two champions VetHealth-Delhi 3BL, who will still have the services of Indian national basketball team mainstay AJ Gill, will be joined by the Marikina Shoemasters and the all-Filipino Vigan-MiGuard Wolves in Pool A.
Wilkins Balanga, a three-man Zamboanga Valientes MLV squad, and the Thunder Pateros Hunters compose Pool B while Pool C will have the Tycoon Ballers QC, the Mindoro Tamaraws, and Cebu.
Completing the cast are Phenom-Basilan, Gold’s Gym Muntinlupa, and Inoza-Gulf Supreme Boosters Bulacan in Pool D.
The leg will have PHP 100,000 at stake while the conference has a prize pool of PHP 2,000,000 plus tickets to the 2019 Jeddah Masters and the Xiong’An Challenger.
All games will be shown live across all ESPN5 platforms starting at 10:30 am while telecast on ESPN5 begins at 1:00 pm.
