Leg 44of the PBA 3×3 belonged to Cavitex as it pulled off a 19-15 win against Pioneer Elastoseal for its first title in the Third Conference Season 2 Sunday at Robinsons Place Novaliches.
Dominick Fajardo starred for the Braves with 11 points and five rebounds, including a near-perfect 8-of-9 shooting from the field to steer the NLEX franchise on top and claim the P100,000 prize purse.
Both teams fought tooth and nail until the final three minutes when Cavitex went on a short but telling 6-1 run to take an 18-12 lead on a Bong Galanza jump shot with 1:26 to play.
Until that game-changing run, the Braves were just ahead, 12-11.
Jorey Napoles finished with four points, while Galanza and big man Tzaddy Rangel each had two as coach Kyles Lao won his first title with Cavitex.
Pioneer took home the runner up purse of P50,000, duplicating the same finish it had in Leg 1 when it lost to San Miguel Beer in the finals.
Reggie Morido had six points in a losing cause for the Katibays.
Almond Vosotros struggled with his shooting, but Samboy De Leon and the rest of the TNT Tropang Giga took care of the scoring in a 20-18 victory over Platinum Karaoke in the battle for third place.
De Leon finished with six points, while Luis Villegas and Ping Exciminiano had five each to lead the team to a podium finish and take home the prize money of P30,000.
The team effort made up for Vosotros’ woeful shooting as the league’s scoring champ went 2-of-10 from the field and finished with four points.
Both the Braves and Katibays brought down two contenders on the way to the finals.
Cavitex denied Barangay Ginebra’s bid for a back-to-back leg championship as it pulled off an 18-13 win in the quarterfinals, before cruising past Platinum Karaoke in the semis, 22-12.
Pioneer Elastoseal on the other hand, nosed out TNT in the semis, 22-20, after getting past Meralco in the quarters, 15-11.
The scores
Third place
TNT (20) – De Leon 6, Villegas 5, Exciminiano 5, Vosotros 4.
Platinum Karaoke (18) – Banal 8, Salva 5, Andrada 3, Tumalip 2.
Finals
Cavitex (19) – Fajardo 11, Napoles 4, Galanza 2, Rangel 2.
Pioneer Elastoseal (15) – Morido 6, Villamor 4, Mocon 3, Abrigo 2.
