With the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 Patriot’s Cup presented by Coca-Cola in its penultimate leg, the Wilkins-Balanga Pure decided to bring an old reliable.
Santi Santillan, who led Balanga to four Finals appearance in the President’s Cup, will make his return on Saturday, July 13 at the SM Megamall Events Center.
Balanga made it to the finals in the third leg last weekend, losing to Phenom-Basilan, 21-16 (1:36).
The Wilkins-backed squad, who will also have Alvin Pasaol, Karl Dehesa, and Travis Franklin, is sitting at fourth in the leaderboard with 220 points.
Also set to make their return are the Gold’s Gym-Pasig Kings, who are coming off a quarterfinals finish in the 2019 FIBA 3X3 Poitiers Challenger last week.
“We can’t wait to show what we’ve learned from our France experience,” said Statham as Pasig and VetHealth-Delhi 3BL are tied at second with 230 points.
For their part, third leg champs Phenom-Basilan Steel, who will not have Roosevelt Adams once more as he is playing for Mighty Sports in the William Jones Cup, will field little-known Fil-Am Brandon Hunter together with Franky Johnson, Troy Rike, and Marcus Hammonds.
“We can’t be complacent,” said Johnson as Phenom-Basilan holds just a 30-point lead over Pasig and Delhi in the standings. “We have to work on our plays and continue to build chemistry with each other.”
Also making changes are the Zamboanga Valientes MLV, who replaced Ola Adeogun for Darius Scott, and Max4-Birada Cebu, who tapped shooter Mark Panerio for Jerome Napao.
Phenom-Basilan is slotted in Pool A together with the Mindoro Tamaraws and Zamboanga while Balanga is grouped with Cebu and the Marikina Shoemasters in Pool B.
VetHealth-Delhi is joined by Inoza-Gulf Bulacan and the Thunder-Pateros Hunters in Pool C while Tycoon-Ballers QC and MiGuard-Vigan will welcome Gold’s Gym-Pasig back.
Games will begin at 10:45 am. All games will be streamed live across all platforms of ESPN5 while the telecast begins at 1:00 pm.
