Abueva, pals move to Fiba 3x3 KO stage

MANILA, Philippines –  Calvin Abueva and his teammates dropped their opening game against Kranj of Slovenia, 17-21, then survived a do-or-die game against Doha of Qatar, 16-14, as Manila North advanced to the knockout stage of the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final in Abu Dhabi Thursday (early Friday morning in Manila).

Abueva scored seven points in their victory over the Qatar team that lined them up for a grudge match with Manila Masters gold-medal game tormentor and world No. 1 NoviSad AlWahda.

Dusan Bulut, Dejan Majstorovic, Marko Savic and Marko Zdero, also the highest ranked 3-on-3 players individually in the world, roared past Rio of Brazil, 22-8, and Vilnius of Lithuania, 21-14, in Group A play in the eliminations.

In Group D, Kranj, Manila North and Doha wound up with identical 1-1 win-loss cards.

The Slovenians and the Filipinos made it to the quarterfinals upon the application of the point system tiebreak. Kranj amassed 34 points, Manila North 33 and Doha only 30.

Manila North got into a tough situation after a four-point loss to Kranj where the Filipinos lost Karl Dehesa on a shoving incident in the 7:36 mark of the game.

With Dehesa back, Manila North, also featuring Vic Manuel and Troy Rosario, salvaged the game it couldn’t afford to lose against Doha and thus joined NoviSad, Kranj, Rio, Denver, Trbovlje, Ljubljana and NY Harlem in the Final Eight.

It’s Kranj versus Rio, Trbovlje against Denver, Ljubljana opposite NY Harlem and NoviSad versus Manila North.

 Doha, composed of Yaseen Musa, Tanguy Ngombo, Dominic James and Sammy Monroe II, topped Manila North during the group competition in Manila.

In their rematch, the Filipinos raced to a 5-0 lead and stayed ahead through to the finish.

Behind James and Monroe, the Qataris came to within two at 4-6 then the Filipinos regrouped, making their own run to regain a five-point lead at 12-7.

Abueva highlighted the decisive roll in setting up Manuel for a slam then draining a two-pointer.