Junior Warriors face Squires in FBL semis

MANILA, Philippines - Defending chmapion Letran Squires and the University of the East Junior Warriors clash for a place in the finals on Dec. 13 as the semifinals of the 2009 Futures Basketball League (FBL), now on its fourth year as a grassroots school-based developmental program, goes into the homestretch at the Xavier gym in San Juan.

The Junior Warriors of coach Mark Herrera, who is also the national U-13 coach, topped the elimination round in Group A with a perfect record, while Letran was second.

The winner advances to the finals against the winner of Group B’s own semifinals series featuring Adamson University and Our Lady of Lourdes School-Antipolo.

The girls’ division’s top two teams are defending champion San Beda-Alabang and De La Salle-Zobel, with similar 6-0 win-loss records in the elimination round. San Beda plays St. Theresa’s College while DLSZ tries to go past Montessori International School-Antipolo.

The tournament is sponsored by Primovit Multi-vitamins, Gatorade, Purefood, Samsung Digital Camera, and Accord Capital and organized by Futures Sports & Events.

In the midgets semifinal, defending champion Don Bosco Technical Institute battles t De la salle -Zobel while San Beda-Alabang faces unbeaten St. Mary’s. In the mini division 2009 champion Xavier plays Marist School and Don Bosco Technical Institute takes on Colegio San Agustin.