Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Developmental League (D-League) first-draft pick Joshua Munzon fought for the Filipinos with 10 points from three shots off-the arc during the first game and six points in the second game. He was aided by Taylor Statham with six points in both games, but the big man struggled with foul-trouble throughout all of Game Two of Pool A.
Sosnovy Borcoprosatom was led by Artem Timofeev with seven points, while Vladislav Meleshkin and Vladimir Bazylev both contributed six. As for Liman, Stefan Kojic, Alexsandar Ratkov, and Maksim Kovacevic scored eight, five, and five respectively, while a shot beyond the arc by teammate Milhailo Vasic at the last 2:13 of the match officially ended Pasig’s campaign.
Ronald Mascarinas, owner of the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 league, still responded positively to Team Philippines’ performance, saying, “We lost to the better teams today. Taylor, Joshua, Troy (Rike) and Dylan (Ababou), you played with a lot of heart and we are proud of you. We are not giving up on our Olympic dream because of this setback. We will continue to prepare and play harder to make our country proud.”
The Pasig Chooks will make their next international appearance in Tinkoff Moscow 2019 on June 7-8 to advance to the Prague Masters.