GOYANG - The third round in the PBA team league is heading towards its end with Green Force (Jae-ho Cho, Antonio Montes) leading the league table. The frontrunner won 17 out of 21 games, has 1.458 on team-average and holds a 7-point lead over Laon (Jae guen Kim, David Martinez) and 21 over Bazzar (Dani Sánchez, Ji-eun Han). The team league is spread over a total of five rounds, in which the winners of these sessions qualify for the playoffs. Green Force and Bazzar already have the ticket for that final round.
Spaniard Antonio Montes has become a key player in the front-runner's team. In the last match he played, Montes defeated Semih Sayginer 11-10 in an exhilarating match and clinched the 4-1 win for his team against Legend. Another notable match was Jae-ho Cho's win against Sung-won Choi by 15-6. Green Force also won earlier in this round against Winners 4-1. In that match, Montes won against Cenet 15-9. Antonio Montes (30) is the former European junior champion at UMB in 2014.
The third round in the PBA league wraps up today with the final matches in which HanaPlay, Legend, Phoenix and Winners still play.
Green Force is unapproachable at the top of the rankings after the three wins in this third round. Interestingly, Bazzar, the other round winner, lost its first three matches of this round. Green Force won its last match 4-2 vs Direct despite Eddy Leppens' win against Ma (15-13). HanaPlay beat Winners 4-1 with wins for Coklu against Phuong Linh Nguyen (15-13) and for Nguyen Quoc Nguyen against Cenet by 11-9.
Laon, which has climbed to second place, beat Angels 4-1 with a loss including the Zapata/Capak double against JG Kim and TK Kim and a win for Jae-guen Kim in the individual match against Zapata by 15-9. Laon also won against Bazzar 4-3 in a thrilling sevens set, in which Dani Sánchez won at centrecourt against Jae-guen Kim 15-9.
Ye-eun Kim was the better of Sruong Pheavy 9-1 in the women's match in which Phoenix won 4-2 over Angels. Then Angels won against HanaPlay 4-1, thanks in part to Zapata winning from Coklu 15-12.
The Winners couple with Mi-rae Lee
Former UMB world champion Orie Hida playing for Direct team
Direct player Eddy Leppens who beat Sung-won Choi
The standings on the final day of the third round (played, wins, losses, match points, average):
- Green Force 21-17-4-49-1,458
- Laon 20-14-6-42-1,280
- Bazzar 20-7-13-28-1,237
- HanaPlay 20-9-11-27-1,266
- Angels 21-9-12-26-1,173
- Direct 20-8-12-26-1,248
- Legend 19-10-9-25-1,198
- Winners 20-8-12-24-1,271
- Phoenix 19-8-11-23-1,154