Saturday, January 12, 2008 Demape to suit up for Metro Gaisano-CIT
GILBERT Demape, widely described as Cebu’s Michael Jordan, will gear up for Metro Gaisano-Cebu Institute of Technology in the Reinforced Partners Cup this Sunday in Talisay City.
Demape’s exceptional skills, which he displayed while playing for CIT in his college days, earned him the Michael Jordan comparison.
The former Wildcat already left his mark on the national basketball scene, having played for Philippine Team.
After college, Demape, who is from Mandaue City, played with the Philippine Basketball League before playing for the Manila Metro stars in the now defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association. He moved to the country’s premier basketball league, the Philippine Basketball Association, where he was able to play for Talk ‘N Text, Purefoods and Sta. Lucia.
Import
Demape will be the second popular import for Metro Gaisano-CIT, after Jerry Jaca joined the team earlier. Jaca also had a brief stint with the professional leagues.
CIT head coach Alex dela Torre said that he hopes his team will finally improve its standing now that its lineup has been reinforced.
“I am hoping that we would have a better game since Demape has a lot of maturity and experience,” dela Torre said.
Metro Gaisano-CIT only has one win after five outings and hopes for a better slate after Sunday’s game.
No problem
Partners Cup official Felix Tiukinhoy said the tournament has no problem with CIT adding a new member in its roster midway into the competition.
Tiukinhoy said they allowed it since not all of the reinforcements can play regularly.
“There are times when these players can only play for certain times and can no longer finish the tournament because of other commitments,” Tiukinhoy said.
Tiukinhoy said that teams that have reinforcements can only field two imports on the court. “As long as this rule is followed then there is no trouble,” he said.
CIT is consistently strong in the first period but always crumbles at crunch time. Apart from Jaca and Demape, the team depends on Sherwin Abobo and Sherwin Resilla, members of the team’s regular roster. (MCB)
