Ave Maria starts hot in future hoop

CEBU, Philippines – Ave Maria Sanctuary Park, composed of former and upcoming varsity players of the University of San Jose-Recoletos, snatched the early lead in the Clear Men’s Future Basketball League at the old Sacred Heart School-Jesuit gym.

AMSP-B of coach Edito Salacut won by default over Laniors, a team made up of former top cagers of the University of the Visayas Lancers and University of San Carlos Warriors, and then whipped Don Bosco College, 32-19, to grab the solo lead in Bracket B with a clean 2-0 slate.

Earlier, Don Bosco scored a 19-13 victory over Southwestern University, 19-13, while Rain won by forfeiture over Laniors but lost to the Knights-Below Average in overtime, 32-40.

In Bracket A, the Ave Maria-sponsored X-Men shared the lead with BIR-Our Lady of Fatima with identical 2-0 cards.

The X-Men, bannered by Ranulfo Malinao, Bobby Hatague, Armand Ponce, Mannie Gabas, Randy Pogoy and Jabe Delfino, dumped the Watchmen, 38-17, and followed it up with a 25-22 bashing of the ACT QuickShoppe.

ACT Cyber Knights though quickly bounced back from that setback by edging out Lucky Terminal, 19-29.

BIR-Our Lady of Fatima, led by former Cebu Institute of Technology Wildcat Mark Villagonzalo and former USC Warrior Mark Ignasius Loyola , pulled a 33-30 win over the University of Cebu Webmasters and then spanked the Dumaguete-based Lucky Terminal, 29-19.—Caecent No-ot Magsumbol (THE FREEMAN)