CEBU CITY. – Back where it all began — and with a bang.
Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 teams are out to prove their worth in the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters — the biggest international tilt to be held in the Queen City of the South — beginning Friday at the SM Seaside here.
The city has never hosted a FIBA-level tourney until the firm deemed it best to bring a World Tour leg to the same place where its 3×3 program began three years ago, with the help of The Sisters of Mary School.
“We are bringing the biggest basketball event in Cebu,” Chooks-to-Go President Ronald Mascariñas said.
Chooks, together with The Sisters of Mary School Girlstown and Boystown, broke a FIBA world record for most kids playing in a 3×3 game and the highest number of simultaneous Under-18 matches played with 1,656 girls and 1,380 boys taking part in the two-day event back in January 2019.
“We are here today to pay homage to The Sisters of Mary School Girlstown and Boystown,” Mascariñas said, who was joined by Sisters of Mary Boystown’s Sr. Esterlita Capiña, SM and Girlstown’s Sr. Laresa Morasa, SM.
“Buong puso nila tayong tinanggap noong 2019, when we launched the 3×3 program of Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas.”
Chooks has since become a top backer of 3×3 play in the country, with all its efforts focused on not just helping the sport grow locally but for the Philippines to gain points in the FIBA 3×3 rankings.
“Lahat ng ginagawa natin is really leaning towards qualifying for the Olympic qualifying tournament,” Mascariñas said.
“Sana, kung palarin tayo, with God’s blessing, makalaro ang Pilipinas sa Paris Olympics.”
Since that record-breaking event was held at the 25-court campus of The Sisters of Mary Boystown, Chooks always made sure to give back to the school and to the city as well by staging Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 events.
But the upcoming festivities is definitely much more special, with the world’s best of the best in the halfcourt competitions set to battle it out in the two-day, maximum level tourney where $40,000 awaits the champion.
Fourteen teams will see action, with hometown bet Cebu Chooks and Manila Chooks bidding to give the country another Pro Circuit title like what the former did by ruling the Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3×3 Asia Pacific Super Quest last April.
Cebu is bannered by homegrown star Mac Tallo, who’s embracing the pressure as he performs in front of his fellow Cebuanos for the first time as a pro.
“Gusto kong magpasalamat kay boss Ronald at sa Chooks. Dahil sa kanila, I get to represent the country and makabalik sa Cebu to play in my hometown,” Tallo, the country’s top-ranked 3×3 player, said.
Tallo is joined by Brandon Ramirez, Zach Huang, and Mike Harry Nzeusseu in the Cebu squad, which is grouped in Pool A with Antwerp and Omaha.
