Cebu Masters Champions Riga – Cavars, Miezis, Lasmanis and Crumins with Boss Ronald Mascarinas
CEBU CITY – Powerhouse Riga of Latvia crowned themselves the champions of the 2022 FIBA 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters by prevailing over top seed Antwerp of Belgium, 21-19, Sunday at the SM Seaside City. Nauris Miezis got the vote as Most Valuable Player after his finals heroics and give his team their second title this season after ruling last month’s Montreal Masters.
Antwerp clung to a 17-14 lead and that was the cue for Miezis to score Riga’s final seven points. Nick Celis scored for the Belgians’ final threat at the nine-second mark, 19-20, but Miezis drew a foul and created anxious moments by missing his first free throw but recovered to calmly sink the championship winner and stop the match with four ticks left.
Miezis finished with a total of 10 points to lead all scorers while teammates Karlis Lasmanis had six, Edgars Crumins three at two from Agnis Cavars. The quartet also made up the Latvian National Team that annexed the historic first gold medal for 3×3 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Riga will take home $40,000 (P2,400,000) while MVP Miezis received a new luxury watch. This marks the team’s second trophy on Philippine soil after winning the Manila Challenger at SM City Fairview in September, 2019.
Due to the warm reception from the Cebuano fans, Boss Ronald Mascarinas of Chooks To Go promised that the World Tour will return to the Queen City of the South in 2023. Despite the disappointing finishes of local bets Cebu Chooks (10th) and Manila Chooks (12th), the journey to make it to the 2024 Paris Olympics will continue.
In the side events,Piotr Grabowski of Poland wowed the crowd and the judges with a pair of perfect 30-point dunks to rule the Dunk Contest and pocket $4,000 (P240,000) over Filipino entries David Carlos and Miguel Gastador. Thibaut Vervoort of Antwerp secured some consolation with $500 (P30,000) from the Two-Point Shootout with a winning 14 points over Mark Jayven Tallo of Cebu with 12, Steve Sir of Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy with 11 and Chico Lanete of Manila with nine.
The 43-year old Lanete was also honored in-between games as he formally announced his retirement as a player and will now focus fulltime on his role as head trainer of both Cebu and Manila. Joined by his family who unexpectedly flew in, he received a framed jersey and their very own Chooks To Go store from Boss Ronald Mascarinas.
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