Governor’s Cup cage wars to go full blast on March 9

CEBU, Philippines — Exciting hardcourt action in the 2019 Cebu Governor’s Cup Inter-Cities and Municipalities Under 21 Developmental Basketball Tournament will go full blast on March 9 featuring a total of 17 games spread in eight venues around the province.

Set to run for three months, the annual tilt for young aspiring cagers was formally launched by the organizing Cebu Provincial Sports Commission (CPSC) with representatives of all 41 participating LGUs (local government units) in attendance yesterday at Golden Peak Hotel.

“This is part of our grassroots program, and we’re hoping that we could sustain it every year,” said CPSC Executive Director Atty. Ramil P. Abing.

For this season, Governor’s Cup commissioner Danny Duran said they will adopt a new format wherein the contending teams are clustered according to congressional districts. They will play a single round robin, with the top two qualifiers facing off in a one-game district championship.

For congressional districts with only three teams,  they will follow a double round robin format to determine the two teams that will slug it out for the district title.

Aside from pocketing a cash incentive of P100,000 and P50,000, top two teams in each district will also advance to the quarterfinals and will be divided into two clusters through drawing of lots. Each cluster will play another single round robin.

The top two finishers per cluster will then proceed to the crossover semifinals. The winners will dispute the overall crown in a best-of-three series while the losers will fight for third place in a winner-take-all affair.

The grand champion will take home P500,000, while the second to fourth placers will receive P300,000, P200,000, and P100,00 0, respectively. The Most Valuable Player will get P10,000, while the members of the Mythical Five will claim P5,000 each.

The Talisay City Aquastars, who won last year’s championship with a perfect 14-0 record under the guidance of coach Rey Michael Gurrea, will kick off their title defense against the Sibonga Pillars at their home turf.

 In the other 1st District games this Saturday at the Talisay City Sports Complex, the Minglanilla Archangels will go up against the San Fernando Spartans, while the Naga City Electrifiers will lock up honors with the Carcar City Lechoneros. Show time starts at 4:30 pm.

The rest of the season-opening matches will be played at the Oslob municipal gym (2nd District), Tuburan municipal gym (3rd District), Bogo City Coliseum (4th District), Catmon municipal gym (5th District A), Danao City Sports and Civic Center (5th District B),  Consolacion National High School gym (6th District), and Dumanjug municipal gym (7th District A).