Bayugan Invt’l hoops
BAYUGAN CITY, Agusan del Sur — Manila teams who are among the six competing squads in the cash-rich 8th Mayor Kim Lope A. Asis Invitational Basketball Tournament in the City of Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, expect tough competition against their Cebuano counterparts.
Teams from Cebu are the Mair Construction/Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma Cobras and the Phoenix Petroleum/University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters while those from Manila are Vincare Pharma-University Sto. Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers, Madyaw Construction-National University (NU) Bulldogs, and the ARQ Builders-Lyceum Polytechnic University (LPU) Pirates. Another participant in this tournament, which is part of Bayugan City’s 11th Charter Day celebration, are the Greene Builders/Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan Crusaders of Cagayan de Oro.
In a press conference yesterday at the Bayugan City Hall, coaches of the Manila teams said they know how tough Cebuanos play on the hard court.
“Basically, the teams from Cebu are definitely a force to reckon with, so we promise to bring in a good fight,” Bulldogs head coach Ricky Reyes said.
The tournament came off the wraps yesterday at the Lope Asis Memorial Gymnasium with NU facing Xavier in group A and UC taking on UST in Group B. Games were going on at press time.
“We expect to play as hard as we can and have to compete all the time. We came here not for a vacation but to compete and win the title. But it’s not going to be easy, knowing that Cebu teams are very tough,” said LPU coach Gilbert Malabanan.
Group A is composed of the Bulldogs, the Pirates and the Crusaders while Group B is composed of UC, SWU-Phinma and UST. Teams will go through a single round-robin with the top two finishers in each bracket advancing to the crossover semifinals.
The semis winners will figure in a sudden-death championship match, while the losers will battle for third place.
Aside from trophies, the champion will take home P200,000 while the second placer will pocket P150,000.
The third to fifth will receive P100,000, P75,000, and P50,000, respectively.