Cebu Chooks brace for tough draw in Fiba 3×3 Lipik Challenger

Cebu Chook’s Mac Tallo, Mike Nzeusseu, Brandon Ramirez and Zach Huang. –CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Cebu Chooks returns to action on Friday in the Fiba 3×3 Lipik Challenger in Pozesko-Slavonska Zupanija, Croatia.

Cebu Chooks faces world no. 2 Liman of Serbia on Friday 11:40 pm Manila time and Switzerland’s top team Fribourg on Saturday 1:20 am.

This will be the second time Cebu faces Liman for the season, bowing to the Serbians during the 2022 Chooks-to-Go Manila Masters’ quarterfinals, 21-11.

This time around, Mac Tallo, Zach Huang, Brandon Ramirez, and Mike Nzeusseu are ready.

“We had a tough loss to Liman during Manila Masters,” said Tallo, the country’s top 3×3 player and no. 78 in the world. “We thought we were ready for them then but they’re really a tough team.

“I guess now we’re more prepared for them. ”

Liman will still field the quartet of world no. 4 Stefan Kojic, no. 9 Aleksandar Ratkov, no. 13 Nebojsa Kilijan, and no. 19 Miroslav Pašajlić.

Chooks is also wary of the challenge Fribourg brings.

“Though we haven’t seen that much of Fribourg, we have seen tapes of them and they are very skilled,” said Philippines’ no. 2 player Huang. “They are as young as us and very skilled.”

Cebu spent its first day in Croatia doing conditioning exercises, a shootaround in the halfcourt, a film session with head trainer Aldin Ayo, and attending the technical meeting.

The team will have one more shootaround on Friday before competing in the level nine tournament that has a ticket to the Lausanne Masters at stake.

“We know we can compete against the world’s best teams. We have proven that all year long,” said 6-foot-5 bruiser Ramirez. “We have mentally prepared ourselves for this grind.”