Serbian teams arrive early for Manila Masters
Photo caption: UB 3×3 team arrives at their hotel in Manila to prepare for the Chooks-to-Go Manila Masters. | Photo from Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas
CEBU CITY, Philippines—- The vaunted 3×3 Serbian teams that recently competed in the Utsunomiya World Tour Masters in Japan arrived in Manila on Tuesday evening, May 17, 2022, for the Chooks-to-Go Manila Masters, which will be held on May 28-29 at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay.
UB and Liman, two of Serbia’s finest 3×3 teams, arrived early in Manila to acclimatize and start their training camp ahead of the upcoming major FIBA 3×3 World Tour competition.
The teams will be welcomed by the Philippines’ very own Cebu Chooks and Manila Chooks 3×3 squads which will join them in their training camp. Cebu Chooks and Manila Chooks will compete against these Serbian teams in the upcoming tournament.
“Our supposed training camp in Serbia last month did not push through due to the conflict happening in Eastern Europe,” said Chooks-to-Go president Ronald Mascariñas.
“So, instead of bringing our players there, we decided to bring the top 3×3 players in the world here. We are grateful to UB and Liman for sharing with us their knowledge in the 3×3 game. This would definitely benefit our program in the long run.”
UB of Serbia is No. 1 in the latest FIBA 3×3 rankings. They recently topped the Utsunomiya World Masters, which is the inaugural leg of the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Masters and considered the most prestigious event in 3×3 basketball.
UB is comprised of 6-foot-7 Strahinja Stojacic and 6-foot-6 Dejan Majstorovic, who are ranked No. 1 and 2 in the FIBA 3×3 world player rankings, respectively.
Completing the squad are 6-foot-7 Marko Brankovic (World No. 7) and and 6-foot-5 Nemanja Barac (World No. 132).
Meanwhile, Liman, is the third highest-ranked team in the world. They finished fifth in the Utsunomiya Masters and will be looking for a better showing in the Manila Masters.
Liman is bannered by three members of the Serbian 3×3 national team which bagged the bronze in last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
These are 6-foot-8 Stefan Kojic, 6-foot-4 Aleksandar Ratkov, and 6-foot-7 Mihailo Vasic, who are all in the top 12 in the world rankings. The fourth member of the squad is 6-foot Kilijan Nebojsa, 20th in the world rankings.
On the other hand, Cebu Chooks, which recently won the FIBA 3×3 Asia Pacific Super Quest is comprised of two Cebuanos, Mac Tallo and Zach Huang, and joined by Brandon Ramirez and Mike Harry Nzeusseu.
Manila Chooks, which recently made the finals of the Mongolia Super Quest, will be parading a lineup composed of Chico Lanete, Ken Holmqvist, Dennis Santos, and Henry Iloka.
/bmjo
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