Cebuano Santillan questionable for succeeding games in FIBA 3×3 World Tour after ankle injury

Leonard Santillan grimaces in pain after spraining his right ankle in a game against Latvia. | photo from Chooks to Go

Cebu City, Philippines—Cebuano forward Leonard Santillan will be a game-time decision for Balanga Chooks when they take on the world No. 1 Liman of Serbia in the 2019 FIBA 3×3 World Tour Masters on April 19, 2019, in Doha, Qatar.

Santillan, the former University of the Visayas Green Lancer, sprained his right ankle early on during Balanga’s 19-17 stunner over 2019 Wuxi Challenger champion Riga Ghetto of Latvia. The battle against Liman will be at 11:45 p.m.

In spite being undermanned, Balanga and the other Philippine team in this competition, Pasig Chooks, went unscathed in their two games in the preliminaries, on Thursday night, April 18, 2019.

Both Pasig and Balanga went 2-0 (win-loss) to advance to the knockout quarterfinals of this global meet as two of the four seeded squads.

“Our teams showed the world what we have been doing for the last three months,” said Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 commissioner Eric Altamirano. “Unlike past teams that were confused with the rules, Pasig and Balanga only made a few mental mistakes during their games. In addition, they were disciplined.”

Pulling off a cardiac win to sweep Pool C was Balanga. Down to just three men with Santillan’s departure, Alvin Pasaol willed his team to a dramatic 20-19 win in overtime over Moscow Inanomo.

Not to be outdone was Pasig. After soundly defeating home team Katara, 21-14, to open their campaign, the reigning 2019 Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 President’s Cup champion stunned world no. 1 Liman of Serbia, 19-16, to sweep Pool A.

With the game tied at 14-all with 1:04 left, Serbian import Nikola Pavlovic knocked down a long deuce for the go-ahead basket. Liman though would put up one last run, cutting the lead to just a solitary point, before Taylor Statham took over and scored back-to-back buckets to complete the massive upset.

Completing the top four were Mihailo Vasic of Liman (16) and Adin Kavgic of Piran (15).

Pasig squares off against Riga Ghetto to open the quarterfinals stage of this two-day tournament at 9:45 p.m. /bmjo