Abu Dhabi—Manila Chooks TM went cold at the worst of times.
Shooting woes plagued Manila Chooks TM as it suffered a deflating 8-22 loss (9:03.3) at the hands of world no. 5 Amsterdam of the Netherlands to bow out of the 2021 FIBA 3×3 World Tour Abu Dhabi Masters, Saturday morning (Manila time) at the Kasr Al Amwaj here.
Coupled by their 11-22 (8:09) loss to Liman earlier in the day, the Philippine-side finished 11th out of 14 teams in this maximum level tournament. Utrecht, Minakami, and Abu Dhabi were the bottom three teams.
"Of course, we're disappointed," said Manila Chooks TM head trainer Aldin Ayo. "Even if we did not have Mike (Nzeusseu), it's no excuse for the performance that we had.
"We are looking to re-assess our lineup for the 2022 pro circuit," he added.
Mac Tallo and the rest of the Manila quartet simply struggled to find the hole early on despite getting good looks.
Amsterdam, on the other end, pounded the Filipinos who were missing Cameroonian Mike Nzeusseu in the paint, racing to a 13-4 lead with four minutes left.
Old dogs Mark Yee and Chico Lanete tried to bring a semblance of fight but the momentum was clearly with Amsterdam.
A split from the stripe by world no. 14 Julian Jaring with 1:03 left followed by a deuce courtesy of no. 15 Maksim Kovacevic seconds later punched Amsterdam’s ticket to the next round.
Amsterdam finished with a 1-1 slate, losing to Liman as well, 16-10.
World no. 12 Dimeo van der Horst led Amsterdam with eight points and five rebounds while Kovacevic had seven points and five rebounds.
Jaring and Aron Roijé had four and three points, respectively.
Horrid was the shooting of Manila Chooks TM, going just 6-of-24 from the field and 0-of-5 from the stripe.
Mac Tallo had three points for Manila Chooks TM while Zachy Huang and Lanete had two points apiece. Yee had one point and a game-high six rebounds.
Against Liman, Tallo was the leading scorer for Manila with eight points — all coming from rainbow country. Yee had four rebounds and two points while Lanete had a solitary point.
World no. 11 Aleksandar Ratkov had six points and five rebounds for Liman while Stefan Kojic also had six points built on two deuces. Nebojsa Kilijan had five points and five rebounds while no. 4 Mihailo Vasic had three points.
Liman will face Ulaanbaatar in the quarterfinals while Amsterdam squares off against Riga Ghetto. Other match-ups are Ub versus Princeton and Antwerp against Gagarin.
