TOP junior basketball teams from Butuan, Bukidnon and Iligan will be in Cagayan de Oro on Saturday and Sunday (February 7 and 8) for the 2015 National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) Regional Finals at the Xavier University gym.
Local NBTC head Arvin Martinez said the four-team field will form part another battle of champions among the local teams that reigned in their respective places in Northern Mindanao and Caraga region during the early stage of the NBTC eliminations.
“We expect another sizable crowd this weekend at the XU gym basta ingon-ani nga torneyo nga aduna tay mga bisita,” Martinez told Sun.Star Cagayan de s
Oro.
Host team Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori School (SHJMS) of coach Boy Dacoco and team manager Marcel Neri made it to the regional finals after defeating Assumption Montessori School (AMS), 84-66 in the Cagayan de Oro leg last Sunday.
The multi-titled Sacred Heart Saints will not only be gunning for their six consecutive final stints in the NBTC League, but will also try to exonerate the ghost that haunts coach Dacoco at the XU gym brought from last year’s bitter memory.
“It’s not actually a Sacred Heart thing. It’s more personal, though it’s hard to afford that kind of experience to happen with my Sacred Heart team,” said Dacoco, who was heart-broken with his STI Olympians in the regional inter-collegiate championship last year.
With the coveted PCCL slot for Cebu elimination on the line, the STI Olympians were then close to nailing it against the Holy Cross of General Santos City when tragedy struck.
Leading by one plus ball possession with just seven seconds left, the Olympians apparently blundered in the ensuing inbound pass that led to an interception and a coast-to-coast lay-up by a GenSan dribbler to the highly-partisan crowd’s great horror.
“Pero ana gyod ang basketball. Anything can happen, mao nga excited na sab ta kon unsa na usab nga drama ang mahitabo karong Sabado ug Domingo,” Martinez said.