CAVITEX hopes to put a fitting end to its Leg Tour campaign in the Philippine Basketball Association 3×3 First Conference as it seeks a third straight championship heading to next week’s grand finale.
The Braves are favored to top anew the final leg of the conference owing to its triumphant Leg 5 campaign last week when they routed Pioneer Elastoseal, 22-10, for the title.
The team currently leads the rest of the 10 teams in the Total Tour Points with 410 after five legs, and is seeded outright to the knockout stage of the grand finals set on August 13.
Still, the Braves are not taking chances and are eyeing to claim the Leg 6 honor when action in Season 3 resumes Monday at the Ayala Malls Trinoma.
Cavitex coach Kyles Lao decided to reactivate guard Tonino Gonzaga for Kenneth Ighalo, who shared scoring honor in the Leg 5 finals a week ago. Gonzaga will join hands with Jorey Napoles, Dominick Fajardo and Bong Galanza.
The 3×3 franchise of NLEX leads the Pool A charge together with Blackwater Razor Smooth and TNT Triple Giga, which will have top scoring guard Almond Vosotros back in action after missing the conference’s penultimate leg.
Pioneer Elastoseal, which achieved a runner up finish for the second time, banners Pool B in the company of Meralco, Purefoods and Wilcon Depot.
Elastoseal coach Lester Del Rosario also shuffled his roster in a bid to nail the last leg title at stake, inserting Wilson Baltazar for Kenneth Mocon to go with the trio of Gian Abrigo, Denice Villamor and Reggie Morido.
Pool C, meanwhile, will have the quartet of back-to-back leg champion Barangay Ginebra, Northport, Terrafirma and San Miguel.
The Kings are running second behind Cavitex in Total Tour points with 328, followed by TNT (290), and Meralco (285) to round out the Top Four teams.
Ginebra, which had a podium finish the last time, replaced John Ubalde with Kim Aurin, while retaining Donald Gumaru, Raphael Cu and Ralph Salcedo in the active roster.
Northport and Terrafirma open hostilities on the opening day of pool play, where the top eight teams from the three groups advance to the knockout stage to be played Tuesday.
Champion team will receive P100,000.