THE best 3×3 basketball teams across the continent are coming to Manila for the inaugural Asia Tour 3×3 set this Saturday and Sunday at the Mall of Asia Music Hall in Pasay City.
Twenty teams—12 men and eight women—including several national squads and top professional 3×3 clubs from six countries, will strut their wares in the two-day event offering $25,000 in prizes.
“3×3 basketball is fast becoming one of the popular sports these days and it is just the right thing to start the Asia Tour 3×3 to a country whose love to the sport is almost unparalleled,” Asia Tour 3×3 founder Connor Nguyen of Vietnam said.
Bannering the hometown bets in the men’s division are Philippine Basketball Association 3×3 teams TNT Triple Giga and Cavitex. Joining them are Zamboanga Valientes, Happy Hotel and Demigod.
Rising Star, Harimau A and Harimau B fly the colors of Malaysia while The Performance Lab from Vietnam, SG Lion from Singapore and 3BL from are also in the fold.
The formidable squads in the women’s division are Philippine teams Uratex Tibay, Uratex Dreams and Discovery Pelas and Malaysia’s Harimau A and B, Singapore’s SG Lioness, Thailand’s Sniper and Vietnam’s VN Red and Gold.
The men’s competition will be divided into four groups consisting of three teams where they play in a single-round robin format in the pool phase.
The top teams from each group get an outright ticket to the quarterfinals while the second- and third-placed teams figure in a crossover play-in match to determine which four teams will advance to the playoffs.
The women’s side, on the other hand, will have two groups of four teams in the pool phase which will figure in the qualification games in a single round-robin format.
The top two teams at the end of the qualifying round advance to the crossover semifinals in the knockout round.
The event has SM as venue partner, Smart as broadcast partner and Wilson as official ball. Also backing the event are Heritage Hotel, Fiber Kinetics (3×3 flooring) and Gatorade.
