Mac Tallo leads the Cebu Chooks campaign in Croatia.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu Chooks 3×3 team flies to Croatia to test its mettle in the 2022 FIBA 3×3 Lipik Challenger from July 22 to 23, 2022.
The level nine FIBA 3×3 tilt will be held in Lipik, Pozesko-slavonska zupanija, Croatia which serves as a qualifying tournament for the Lausanne Masters.
The Cebu Chooks and the Manila Chooks hosted the 2022 Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3×3 World Tour Manila Masters where both teams were eliminated in the opening round against Mongolia and Serbian teams.
However, the journey continues for the Cebu Chooks headed by Cebuano elite 3×3 cager Mac Tallo and Zach Huang with long-time teammates Mike Nzeusseu and Brandon Ramirez. Head Coach is Aldin Ayo.
Tallo will lead Cebu Chooks being the highest-ranked Filipino cager in the FIBA 3×3 world rankings at No. 78.
“Hindi naman kami nawala sa kondisyon since nung Manila Masters. Lagi pa rin kami nag-eensayo at mas gutom kami ngayon para makabawi,” said the Cebuano spitfire.
The team already departed for Lipik and is expected to arrive in Croatia at 9:25 tonight.
It will not be an easy campaign for Cebu Chooks as they go up against 16 other teams from 12 countries. Eight of these squads are ranked in the world’s top 30.
World No. 2 Liman, No. 5 Riga of Latvia, and No. 11 of Mongolia are expected to crowd the podium of the Lipik Challenger.
Other teams to watch out for are world No. 6 Šakiai and No. 15 Marijampolė of Lithuania, No. 14 Düsseldorf of Germany, and No. 23 Merksem of Belgium.
“It’s good to see the team heading back to the road again after the FIBA 3×3 break. We hope that the team shows no rust as this is the beginning of our team’s second half of the year grind,” said Chooks-to-Go president Ronald Mascariñas.
Aside from qualifying for the Lausanne Masters, the champion team will pocket $15,000 while the second and third place finishers will bring home $10,000 and 6,000, respectively.
The fourth ($5,000) and fifth placers ($4,000) will also be rewarded. /rcg
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