Bleacher Talk

Commercial Basketball Comeback?  If you are a follower of Cebu Basketball, you’ll agree with us that we have been longing for basketball action at the open or “commercial” level. I’ll use the term commercial for now but it isn’t an accurate term. We’re talking about basketball beyond the college scene. We’re loaded with activities at the youth and school levels, but we’ve had a vacuum in commercial ball for over two decades. The last leagues that we can remember would be the MBA, Liga Pilipinas, Visayas Mindanao Basketball Association, NBC, Cebu Basketball Federation (CBF), Cebu Basketball League (CBL) and Mandaue Inter Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA). All of these are long gone and under. And since then, we haven’t had a true-blue commercial (semi-pro) league.  Before anything else, let’s define commercial basketball. This is a league that can last a full year, with two or three tournaments played in a season/calendar. Teams agree to form the league and ...

MYBL-Cebu Team Standings (as of February 16, 2020) Here are the updated team standings of the MYBL-Cebu. The top two teams of each group qualify for the next round/playoffs. The playoffs format will use the knock-out / sudden death game format: Quarterfinals - Semifinals - Finals. Good luck to all. Have fun. Duwa lang ta!

The playoffs picture is now clearer for the Division 1’s Under 15 age group of the MVPSF Youth Basketball League-Cebu (MYBL-Cebu) backed by Smart Communications after the weekend games held at the Sacred Heart School Mango Avenue campus gym. Group A . Benthel Asia School of Technology nipped Southwestern University-PHINMA (2-1), 74-73, to top Group A with a 4-0 record, making the second playoff spot a toss-up between SWU-PHINMA and CITU (2-1). Raymond Benitez erupted for 29 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots in an all-around game. CIT-U earned its second win in three games by beating Graphics Point/Toledo, 53-36. Karl Andre Flores had a double double of 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Wildkittens. Group B . Don Bosco Technical College-A (3-1) grabbed the second playoff spot after winning over Punta Princesa/Alas, 41-28. Christian Seno led the team with 13 points while Cris Hernando added nine points, four assists and three steals. Group C . CLBA s...

NBA Midterms It’s midterms time in the NBA, and with this comes the All-star weekend, the deadline for trading of players and the usual assessment of what happened in the period. Is your team on top of the standings? Are your favorite players dominating? Is the addition of Anthony Davis making the Lakers a title favorite? And how about Paul George and Kawhi Leonard teaming up across town with the Clippers? Ironically (and unfortunately), the biggest development of the season didn’t come from the court but off it with the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi and seven others in that horrible helicopter crash. This took the sting out of the exciting activities that had teams fighting for playoff spots. But while tragic, Kobe’s death also served as a wake-up call for all of us sports fans that basketball and everything that happens in this world is all temporary. There’s a bigger, more important event that we ought to be fighting for and that’s our final place a...

Dominating. Saving their best for last, Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu dominated from start to end and leaned on a huge third period uprising for a smashing 116-75 win over Southwestern University-PHINMA to bag the championship of the Chooks to Go NBTC Cebu City Qualifier at the Cebu City Sports Institute yesterday. The Magis Eagles banked on momentum from their semifinal win by jumping to a 20-5 lead early to set the tone for the rest of the game. The Baby Cobras recovered to slash the lead at 34-24 by the end of the first period. SWU-PHINMA continued to rally slicing the lead to 47-40 in the second period before the Magis Eagles settled down and built a 54-42 halftime lead, setting the stage for what was to come in the third period. Determined to deny the Baby Cobras another come from behind win, the Magis Eagles went on a 16-0 tear to build a 70-42 lead to start the third period. They never looked back from there. Not helping SWU-PHINMA’s cause was when leader Kendall Lima...

Defending champion Southwestern University-PHINMA and 2018 champion Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu face off for the championship for the Chooks to Go NBTC League Cebu City Qualifier after scoring wins in yesterday’s semifinals at the at the Cebu City Sports Institute Gym. SWU-PHINMA came from behind to oust University of the Visayas, 77-68, while SHS-Ateneo cruised to a 76-47 win over Don Bosco Technical College Cebu. Proving that last year’s championship was legit, the Baby Cobras rallied from a 36-46 halftime deficit and leaned on its end-game composure to seal a second straight trip to the finals. They tied the game at 48-all in the third period before UV regained the lead at 54-50 to start the fourth period. The Baby Cobras tied the game at 60-all, then went on a 7-0 run to take a 67-60 lead, 4:13 left in the game. UV didn’t wilt and sliced the lead to 67-65 before SWU-PHINMA went on a 10-0 run for a 77-65 lead, 1:10 left in the game. Charles Libatog, Kendall Limana and J...

Don Bosco Technical College and Omar Basketball clinched berths to the next round of the Division 1’s Under 12 age group at the MVPSF Youth Basketball League-Cebu (MYBL-Cebu) presented by Smart Communications and played at the Sacred Heart School Mango Avenue campus gym.   Don Bosco (3-0) overcame its southside neighbor Cebu Institute of Technology-University, 50-35, while Omar Basketball (3-1) cruised to a 52-28 win over Punta Alas. Spitfire AJ Prudenciado had 18 points, four assists and four steals to lead the Greywolves as Xian Garcia recorded a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds. Eric Estalani led Omar with 16 points and five steals as John Paul Gequilan added 12 points. Both teams now sit on top of the team standings of Group A and have qualified for the playoffs. In Group B, idle One on One is on top with a 4-0 slate, followed Benthel Asia (3-1). SHS-Ateneo B leads Group C at 3-0, as USC South (1-1) needs a win in its last game to clinch the second playoff berth ...

Have you ever eaten/tasted puto maya without sikwate? Pwede, but it will be bland and tasteless. You want to taste the best version? Go the Dumaguete public market. When? Try the CVIRAA 2020. But something bothers me. The CVIRAA in Dumaguete looks like it will be puto maya without sikwate. As of today (and I pray that I’m wrong), the CVIRAA will be held without a delegation from the Cebu Province Division of the Department of Education (DepEd). Who or what is the Cebu Province? Let’s refresh our memory, shall we? Issa Molde, Sisi Rondina, Gretchel Soltones and Justine Dorog. They once played in the Cebu Provincial Meet and later the CVIRAA of their time. So did the likes of the Don Bosco Boys’ Home football team, the Carmen boys and girls basketball team and many others. My personal sweet spot? His name is John Edward Aguilar. He’s a nobody if compared to the names mentioned above but he happens to be a somebody; he’s the team captain of a team called the Magis Eagles. He played ...

SHS-Ateneo Cebu, Xavier Univ-CDO Win in All Ateneo Games Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu and Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan won the different titles at the All Ateneo Invitational Games 2020 held at the SHS-Ateneo de Cebu campus in Canduman, Mandaue. SHS-Ateneo copped the Boys Under 13 Basketball event via a 64-50 win over Ateneo de Iloilo. SHS-Ateneo also won the Girls Under 13 Volleyball event by squeaking past Ateneo de Davao in five sets. Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan prevented a sweep by the hosts by bagging the Boys Under 12 Basketball with a thrilling come-from-behind 83-82 win over the host team. In the Under 13 Boys Basketball finals, the Magis Eagles leaned in a second period to break open a close game and cruise to a win. After leading 14-10 after one period, the Magis Eagles opened up a 35-20 halftime lead, a gap they would maintain for the rest of the game. Dylan Jared Lim led a balanced attack and led three others in double digit scoring with 15...