TEAM CEC-A/ACY Shipping/Koi Herbal and two other teams got off to a strong start in the Cebu Eastern College Alumni Basketball Association (Cecaba) 15th Dr. Chen Lieh Fu Memorial Cup, which opened last Sunday at the Cebu Coliseum.
Team CEC-A tripped Batch 1988/Dewfoam, 61-54, with Juan Carlo Espada and Raymark Ong leading the winning team with 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Team skipper Richard Yu paced Batch 1988 with 14 points.
Also chalking up victories were Batch 1995/Millennium Hardware and Batch 2009.
Batch 1995 took down Team CEC-B/PTT Roadstar, 70-61, while Batch 2009 prevailed over Team CEC-C/ATS Ajhune Tinsmith/NST Rubber, 48-44.
Donald Anthony Ting carried Batch ‘95 on his shoulders as he fired a game-high 29 points. Raymond Gollon backed Ting with 14 markers.
CEC-B was led by Bryan Renejane and Roger Donayre Jr. with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Leading the charge for Batch 2009 were Juan Carlos Suazo and Harold, who fired 13 and 12 markers, respectively.
Tan was a rebounding demon for Batch 2009 as he collared 29 boards. Joseph Baluyos was also efficient for Batch 2009 with his eight-point, 11-rebound performance.
Joseph Ajhune Areha was the lone bright spot for the losing team as he was the lone CEC-C player to score in twin digits with 14.
This year’s tournament attracted 11 teams. Only eight teams will advance to the quarterfinal round. In the quarters, it will be No. 1 versus No. 8, No. 2 versus No. 7, No. 3 versus No. 6 and No. 4 versus No. 5.
The top four teams will be twice-to-beat over their lower-ranked foes. The crossover semifinal round will be played in a best-of-three affair as well as the championship battle. The battle-for-third place will be a one-game affair.