MANILA – Philippine representatives Pasig and Balanga Risers failed to sustain their hot starts after bowing out in the quarterfinals round of the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Doha Masters on Friday night in Doha, Qatar.
Pasig squad, composed of Filipino-Americans Joshua Munzon and Taylor Statham and imports Angelo Tsagarakis and Nikola Pavlovic, succumbed to Riga Ghetto of Latvia, 21-15.
The Pasig team was still hanging around with Riga Ghetto early in the game with the score tied at 13-all before the latter unloaded four straight points from Artus Strelnieks amd Karlis Lasmanis to take a 17-13 lead.
Munzon kept the Pasig afloat after converting a two-pointer but they were unable to score a follow up to that until Rigo Ghetto’s Agnis Cavars delivered the knockout blow with a free throw.
Balanga Risers of Alvin Pasaol, Leonard Santillan, former PBA player Karl Dehesa and import Travis Franklin also failed to reach the next round following a 21-9 loss to Liman of Serbia.
The Balanga Risers jumped to an early 3-1 lead in the match before the Liman countered with a rally to tie the score at 3-all before pulling to an 8-3 lead on free throw hits.
They managed to come to as close as 7-9 after an outside shot from Franklin but Liman responded with three outside conversions to reach 21 points with still over two minutes left in the match.
The quarterfinals ouster was a heartbreaker for Pasig and Balanga Risers following a strong start in the group stage on Maundy Thursday where they swept their two matches to advance to the round-of-8./PN
