DEFENDING champion Southern de Oro Philippines College and Xavier University will face each other again in a basketball final for the third-straight time.
This, after the SPC Sharks and the XU Crusaders disposed of their respective semifinal foes via tight matches on Sunday at Macasandig covered courts.
The Sharks of coach Rey Dangcal outlasted Pilgrim Christian College Voyagers, 104-100, while the Crusaders eked out a 90-86 win over the top-seeded Liceo de Cagayan University in tertiary level of the 2017 CDOBF Tour hoopfest.
The Crusaders will play host against the Sharks in a one-off championship game on Saturday at the Xavier University gym with the latter aiming for a grandslam finish.
“We will try to complete a grandslam kung tugtan ug duyogan sa panahon,” said SPC coach Rey Dangcal.
However, the Sharks will play this time around without their reliable stars Mac Labares and three-point artist LJ Aquino, both are now out of their playing years for SPC.
Dangcal will be counting on Jeff Egan, Hardey Alvarez, Kustin Pelomino and siblings Emmanuel III and Emmanuel IV Akut to lead in their offensives.
The Crusaders of coach Rocky Calingin, on the other hand, will be up to the challenge and gamely ready for Saturday’s titular duel.
“Taas among respect both kang coach Rey ug iyang team. Ihatag lang namu ang best and leave it inside the court ug salig ko sa among team and most importantly motivated kami sa kadaogan,” Calingin said.
For his part, Dangcal has this to say: I always admire coach Rocky for being a good competitor with a lot of passion in the game. I guess we just have to prepare ourselves to be competitive and leave everything to God.