By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Zamboanga City-Family’s Brand Sardines proved to be too much and used their experience in the international level to topple Bacolod-Master Sardines at the 2020 Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 President’s Cup finals, 21-17.
Bacolod gave the powerhouse Zamboanga squad a tough time in the early minutes of the championship game after they managed to make the finals showdown a back-and-forth affair.
Chris Lalata and Robin Roño were a handful for Zamboanga after providing the needed scoring spark in hopes of outlasting the heavy favorites.
The dynamic duo shot the ball well from the field and took on the challenge of squaring off against Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol.
Bacolod even got close to within 1, 15-16, under five minutes left in the ball game but the country’s top 3×3 player, Munzon, answered back with back-to-back baskets to put his squad in a comfortable situation.
The lineup of Munzon, Pasaol, Santi Santillan, and Troy Rike got a winning prize pool of 50,000 pesos and were hailed as the 3×3 preseason tourney kings.
Meanwhile, Roño, Lalata, Anton Asistio, Choi Ignacio, and Alfred Batino took home 30,000 pesos as the runner-ups of the first-ever professional 3×3 league in the country.