COMING off a disheartening loss to Zavkhan, Chico Lanete and the rest of Manila Chooks showed their mettle, outlasting Sansar with a 19-18 victory to book their ticket to the quarterfinals of the 2022 Ulaanbaatar FIBA 3x3 Super Quest on Friday at the UB Palace in Mongolia.
Manila faced a 7-3 deficit before Lanete, Henry Iloka, and Dennis Santos connived in a huge rally to eventually tie things up at 18-all with 5.8 seconds left.
Then, the 42-year-old Lanete made one final burst to the basket for a tough layup to put Manila ahead. A miss by Batzolboo Borgil from deep sealed the quarter-finals slot for Manila.
Lanete ended up with seven points built on four points inside the paint, a deuce, and a free throw. Iloka, meanwhile, got six points and 14 rebounds while Santos added six points built on two deuces.
Manila will take on Pool A's second seed Yokohama (2-1) in the quarters at 2:25 PM on Saturday with the winner facing Mongolia's Zaisan.
Cebu Chooks, meanwhile, floundered to the third seed after falling to Ulaanbaatar, 10-21.
Mac Tallo and Cebu were not able to recover from its 10-21 loss to Yokohama earlier in the day.
Ulaanbaatar's Canadian import Steve Sir made it rain on Cebu, draining four deuces to end up with 10 points.
Cold was Cebu anew, going just 5-of-21 from the field.
Brandon Ramirez got four points while Tallo and Zach Huang added three markers each.
Cebu will face Mongolia's Zavkhan in the quarterfinals at 2:00PM with the winner facing Ulaanbaatar in the final four of this level eight FIBA 3x3 tournament. (JNP)