By Vivem Soriano
Eagle News Service
Germany survived a pesky Perlas Pilipinas squad, beating the Pinay ballers 12-10 in the last game of Day 1 of the 2018 FIBA 3×3 World Cup at the Philippine Arena.
The obviously much taller Germans raced to a quick 3-0 lead as it seemed the Europeans were heading to an easy victory against the lowest seeded team in the tournament.
But Pinay baller Afril Bernardino led the Perlas comeback, aggressively attacking the interior against the much taller Germans.
Perlas had lots of chances to win the game, but a crucial out of bounds call initially whistled in favor of the Philippines was successfully challenged by Germany with less than 2 minutes left in the game.
The Philippines played tough defense though, keeping the Germans from scoring but the Pinay ballers missed multiple open chances from the outside to tie the ballgame in the closing minute of the match as Germany held on to a close 12-10 victory.
Bernardino led Perlas Pilipinas with 6 points, Gemma Miranda added 2 points while Janine Pontejos and JD Animam had a point each.
Wiebke Bruns and Laura Zdravevska led Germany with 4 points each. Luana Rodefeld had 3 While Lara Müller scored a point.
