Consolacion coach wants team to contain San Francisco’s main weapon in North Finals
Coach Delfin “Jun” Pepito of the Consolacion Sarok Weavers doesn’t think he has a huge advantage against San Francisco in the North Division Finals of the 2018 Governor’s Cup Inter-Cities/Municipalities Basketball Tournament despite having a slightly better record.
Entering Game 1 of the best-of-three series today at the San Francisco Sports Complex in Camotes Island, the Sarok Weavers have a 10-1 (win-loss) record while the hosts have a 9-2 slate.
So, Pepito, also the coach of the University of the Visayas Baby Lancers in the Cesafi, knows his squad will have to play a near-perfect game in order to come out victorious.
He also has one important instruction to his players that he believes will increase their chances of winning: Contain San Francisco’s main scorer Kenny Rogers Rocacurva.
“We have to defend Rocacurva at all cost, because he’s the main scorer of San Francisco,” Pepito said.
Rocacurva, who plays for the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildcats in the Cesafi, has been playing superb for San Francisco in this tournament, which is why Pepito doesn’t want to be too confident.
“I think we only have a 60-percent chance of winning against them,” he said. “San Fancisco is a strong team and everything lies on my players’ condition.”
Pepito said he is worried with the fact that he will be missing some of his players for Game 1.
“We are prepared but some of my players were not able to come with us here in Camotes [since they had to] attend to their studies,” Pepito said.
Pepito still has some of his key players like Emmanuel Villamor, Rey Gonzaga and Japhet Naingue, but some of them are nursing minor injuries.
“Villamor has back spasms and he also complains about a toothache while Naingue has an ankle injury. But they can still play a hundred percent on game night,” Pepito said.
The winner of the North Division Finals will face South Division champions Talisay City Aquastars.
The Aquastars advanced by sweeping the Sibonga Pillars last Friday in Sibonga.
Talisay head coach Rey Gurrea said he is watching closely the series between Consolacion and San Francisco so he can start preparing his team for the overall championship.
“We want to celebrate but we have to quickly start our preparation for the championship series,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to tell whom between Consolacion and San Francisco are we going to face in the championship because both teams are good. We’ll just have to wait who will win the series.”
Game 1 of the North Division Finals will be broadcast live at Cebu Daily News’ Facebook page via the Cebu Sports Live.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
