MANILA, Philippines - The Blue Sharks retained their title with an impressive 82-57 win over the Kings in Game 3 of the FIBL Fil-India Cup Best of 3 Finals last Sunday at the Makati Coliseum. Finals MVP for the third straight season was Manoj Chandumal, who fired 29 points, 12 of them in the first quarter.
The Sharks raced to a fast start and piled up the points, leading by as much as 25, clamping down on the Kings and thwarting their attempts at a comeback.
Vladimir Singh scored 26 points for the Sharks in their lopsided victory.
Defender Gurdeep Dhaliwal added nine points for the Sharks while Mirpuri had eight and 16 rebounds. Chandumal, who was 5-of-9 from beyond the arc after missing 18 of his last 19 attempts in the Finals, also contributed with eight rebounds and four assists.
After Anil Dargani hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 10, Singh, who has been struggling with his offense in the playoffs, hit two triples of his own to trigger a game-turning 19-2 run to close the first quarter, capped by center Kishore Mirpuri’s buzzer-beating follow-up to take a 29-12 advantage.