Manila North settles for sixth in FIBA 3x3

MANILA, Philippines - Manila North succumbed to the tough, experienced NoviSad AlWahda team, 21-13, in their quarterfinals tiff and settled for sixth place in the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Friday (Saturday morning in Manila).

Calvin Abueva, Vic Manuel, Karl Dehesa and Troy Rosario just couldn’t match the cohesion and versatility of Serbians Dusan Bulut, Dejan Majstorovic, Marko Savic and Marko Zdero, failing to get past the quarterfinals of the tourney ruled by the top-seeded and defending champion NoviSad AlWahda.

In the three-point shootout, Dehesa finished joint third with Szymon Rduch behind champion Derek Griffin of Team Denver and Guilherme Rojas of Team Santos.

Abueva failed to make it past the qualifying round in the slam-dunk contest.

The Serbians beat out Trbovlje of Slovenia, 16-14, in a tight duel in the semis then topped the Kranj squad also of Slovenia, 17-14, in the gold-medal game.

In the other quarters matchups, Kranj repulsed Rio of Brazil, 19-16; Trbovlje routed Denver of United States, 22-10; and NY Harlem nipped Ljubljana of Slovenia, 22-21.

The fifth-ranked Kranj set up a final showdown with NoviSad AlWahda with a 21-19 win over NY Harlem in the semifinals.

Based on accumulated points, NY Harlem was third behind NoviSad AlWahda and Kranj.

Trbovlje came in fourth followed by Ljubljana, Manila North, Rio, Denver, Doha (Qatar), Kolobrzeg (Poland), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Santos (Brazil).

Last year, the Manila West team of Terrence Romeo, KG Canaleta, Aldrech Ramos and Rey Guevarra wound up fifth.

Manila North dropped its  opening game against Kranj, 17-21, then survived a do-or-die game against Doha, 16-14, as Abueva and his teammates made the knockout plays.