Two teams each from Baguio and Dagupan topped their respective divisions to lead Northern Luzon Teams in dominating the NBA 3X Philippines 2018 held at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall on August 25-26, 2018 graced by NBA legends Tim Hardaway, Sr. and Brian Scalabrine.
UL-Dagupan A, SLU A, Greyhounds and Balon Dagupan lead a North Luzon romp that saw them top four of the six categories during the event.
UL-Dagupan A, composed of Mario Angelito Torio, Reynald Ballesteros, Robert Caasi Jr. and Julius Tiburcio from University of Luzon, outlasted their physical match against Metro-Manila-based SAN-C, 21-11, in the Men’s Open Category.
UL-Dagupan A, incidentally, also topped the first-ever NBA 3X Baguio Qualifiers held at the Benguet State University last August 11-12.
SLU A, composed of Jaudenes Parone, Dennis De Vera, Manson Lee Cerantes and Francis Almazan, high school students for Saint Louis University, defeated Braderhub by default for the U16 Boys title.
Greyhounds, a Baguio City team made up of Rieken Espinosa, Dreyxius Castillo, Kyle Patrick Margarata, Adam Floyd Darden, toppled Metro Manila’s Team Palanan, 11-9, in the U13 Division
Balon Dagupan, a team of Pangasinan school girls Regimay Castres, Rosemarie de los Santos, Jane de Vera and Fionna Camangeg, overcame HIMC Monarchs A of Holy Infant Montessori Caloocan, 13-10, for the Girls U13 crown.
Meanwhile, Discovery Perlas and HIMC Monarchs 2 of Caloocan were the others hailed as champions of the three-on-three tournament.
Discovery, composed of Joy Galicia, Angeli Gloriani, Ella Rodrigues and Jhenn Angeles, routed Team Fast Track, 21-13, for the Women’s Open Division
HIMC Monarchs 2, made up of John Dominic Geli, Jeth Monteleyola, Renzo David Apolonia and Alfon Jazmin edged out the Caloocan Supremos C, 13-12, in the Boys Under 18 finals.
In the AXA Division, which showcased skilled athletes from the world’s largest and fastest-growing life insurance company, 2017 runner-up Go Elite (Edster Sy, Ronald Lim, Nicolo Chua and Florante Salazar) came out on top after beating the CL Warriors.
The Celebrity Division crowned Killa Crossover, composed of former NCAA MVP Sudan Daniel, actor-model Marco Alcaraz, singer-actor Billy Crawford and model-rugby player Eric Tai as champions. David Carlos, the Slam Dunk King, stayed undefeated in the Slam Dunk competition.
A total of 1,200 players, 456 from the Baguio eliminations and 744 from the Metro Manila qualifiers, participated in this year’s NBA 3X preliminary tournaments.
The NBA 3X Philippines 2018, presented by AXA, brought authentic NBA entertainment to fans. Also highlighting the event along with Hardaway and Scalabrine are the Detroit Pistons Flight Crew.
The five-time NBA All-Star Hardaway and NBA Champion with the Boston Celtics Scalabrine engaged the fans and helped coach a basketball clinic for 20 kids from AXA, while the Detroit Pistons Extreme Team showcased their aerial dunks and acrobatic performance.
AXA Philippines is the presenting partner of NBA 3X Philippines 2018. In addition, CloudFone, Gatorade, Nike, Panasonic, Rexona, PLDT and Smart arte official partners while SM Mall of Asia and Spalding are supporting partners of this NBA event officially broadcasted by ABS-CBN S+A, Basketball TV, and NBA Premium TV.
By: ARMANDO M. BOLISLIS
