FOUR OF THE best Small Basketeers Philippines (SBP) teams from the region will converge today at the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu basketball court over in Canduman, Mandaue City as they compete for pride and honor in the Cebu-Bacolod Goodwill Basketball Games.
The opening game will pit St. John’s against the SHS-AdC Magis Eagles at 9:15 a.m. Following that encounter will be the game between Cebu Eastern College and USC-North.
Hosting the grand event will be the defending Milo BEST Visayas Regional champion, SHS-AdC Magis Eagles. They will be facing stiff opposition from Bacolod in the form of St. John’s Institute (SJI), a perennial Passerelle division powerhouse of Bacolod.
They will be joined in this four-team tournament by University of San Carlos (USC) North and CEC. USC North was the Milo BEST Cebu champion in 2008, while CEC is in the midst of a basketball buildup.
Games will be played throughout the day on both days with each team playing one game each in the morning and afternoon. The single round robin classification phase will run from the whole day Saturday to Sunday morning, while the finals will be played on Sunday afternoon.
The tournament will serve as a pre-season series of games for the teams that are preparing for the annual Milo BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournament. For Cebu, expected to threaten the Magis Eagles are USC North, while SJI’s main threat in Bacolod comes from the University of St. La Salle. Correspondent Jonas Panerio