Though the Philippine teams were not able to advance to the final stage in the 2018 FIBA 3X3 World Cup, a Filipino was able to win gold. And it came during the 120th celebration of the Philippines’ Independence Day.
Pint-sized, gunslinging guard Janine Pontejos sizzled on a rainy Tuesday afternoon to win the 2018 FIBA 3X3 World Cup Shoot-out gold medal.
And it came with much drama, as the Filipino and Russian Alexandra Stolyar were knotted at 14-all. It came down to who landed their last shot faster.
With the product of Centro Escolar University clocking a time of 41.86 seconds, Pontejos was faster than Stolyar by eight ticks.
The 25-year-old scorer used the first rack as a warm-up, as she knocked down just two balls. She went on to convert eight straight two-balls. To close out her epic performance, she knocked down the final two shots from the bonus rack.
Coming in third was Croatian Marin Hrvoje with 11 points.
Russian Maksim Dybovski finished with eight markers.
