DOHA (Qatar): Qatar’s Lusail qualified for the quarterfinals at the FIBA 3×3 Doha Masters here at the Gharafa Stadium on Saturday.
Also making it to the last eight stage of the two-day event are teams from Switzerland, USA, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Latvia, Germany and Lithuania.
Lusail will take on Utena in the last four.
Top seed Liman of Serbia meet Switzerland’s Lausanne in the first quarter-final at 4:15 PM followed by USA’ s Princeton and Jeddah of south Africa at 4:55 PM.
The third quarterfinal will feature Riga of Latvia and Germany’s Bielefeld at 5:20 PM.
Local outfit Lusail will be banking on local support when they take the court at 5.45pm to face the challenge of Lithuanian club.
On Friday, the tournament kicked off with all the covid19 restrictions in place for the fans, officials and players.
QUARTERFINAL LINEUP: Liman vs Lausanne, 4:15 PM; Princeton vs Jeddah, 4:55 PM: Riga vs Bielefeld, 5:20 PM: Utena vs Lusail, 5:45 PM
The hosts had a lot to cheer as Lusail playing in Group A made to the next stage, while there was a big set back for the local Filipino community as a large chunk of them who were supporting Manila Chooks TM had to go home disappointed as they lost to top-ranked Liman, 15-22, and home team Lusail 14-19 in the Group A matches.
Top-ranked Philippine player Joshua Munzon made a spirited effort for Manila but that went in vain.
Lusail won one match and lost one but made to the next stage from the group. The loss for Lusail came at the hands of Liman21-8.
Lusail started on an impressive note against Manila taking a 5-1 lead, however, Santi Santillan and Alvin Pasaol tie up the scores at 5-all before Munzon briefly took the lead for Chooks, 7-6, off a contested deuce.
Munzon got Manila within a point, 9-10, off a one-legged two-pointer, but Qatari big man Souley Ndour shut the door on any comeback hopes with 5 straight points in a game-sealing 7-1 run for the 17-10 lead.
Munzon then dropped 3 straight points in garbage time before raising his arms in frustration near the end of the sorry loss. He once again led the team with 8 points, while Santillan and Pasaol had 3 and 2 markers, respectively.
Ndour breached double-digit scoring with 10 points as Lusail clinched a quarterfinals berth.
Earlier, Manila started on a high note giving the top-ranked 3×3 team in the world a scare in the first game but went down fighting 22-15 win
Munzon got the lion’s share of offense for his team with a game-high 9 points while Kojic and Vasic chipped in 7 markers apiece in the win.
