(Fullcourtfresh.com/Roehl Niño Bautista)

Pakitang Gilas, a team composed of sports writers from different news organizations, defied the stacked odds and managed to barge through to the semi-finals of the grueling 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the recently concluded adidas All 24 event at the Eastwood Mall on Sunday night.

Composed of Mark Simon Giongco (Inquirer.net), Karlo Sacamos (Manila Bulletin), with me as the designated captain, our trio managed to get a free pass into the quarterfinals with a lucky draw within the 12-team field.

(Fullcourtfresh.com/Roehl Niño Bautista)

Missing the services of fourth-man Jeric Lopez (Manila Standard-Today), who suddenly backed out days before the scheduled matches due to a conflict in schedule, we had a tough time in disposing Blow-Blow (a squad of varsity players from Reedley) in the quarterfinals.

Using our experience from playing against older and more physical players, we managed to outplay the younger and lesser-experienced Blow-Blow trio through a mix of great high-low plays and hustle during the late game blast that gave us the lead for good. Plus, the pep talk given to us by Letran head coach and adidas endorser Louie Alas certainly boosted our morale.

(Fullcourtfresh.com/Roehl Niño Bautista)

Both teams gave the crowd on hand, as well as the commentators Migs Torres and Eric Tipan, a good show. Torres, the color commentator, even remarked that this has been the closest and most highly contested match of the tournament so far, since most of the previous matches in the first round have been one-sided blowouts.

After twenty minutes of play, the final score was pegged at 18-13 in favor of the scribes.

Around thirty minutes before the match, we were informed that there was a change of pairings and that we would face eventual champion Ballers Republic in the semi-final round, which threw us out of our rhythm as we already scouted our next opponent.

Later on, it turns out that the same once again reversed his decision and that we would face the same team that we scouted in the first place.

During that next match, we wound up facing Tuttels. A badly sprained ankle sustained during the first half of the quarter-finals, combined with fatigue after a grueling first half of play that ended in a 6-6 tie, certainly spelled doom for our trio.

(Fullcourtfresh.com/Roehl Niño Bautista)

We had to contend with the various non-calls and bad calls during the highly-intense and physical match, as well as inevitably running out of gas due to the lack of fourth and fifth men in the rotation. Running the same play of giving options for Karlo and Mark to slash to the basket gave away ourselves and

By the end of the match, we fell by a count of 17-24.

Immediately after the match, we were informed by the organizers that due to our seven point loss that we were to only settle for fourth place.

Though we were disappointed by the end result, we were optimistic and more than satisfied at the fourth place finished we garnered by the day’s end. What was more important to us was that we had fun and enjoyed ourselves, plus we pushed our opponents and ourselves to the limits in the process.