RP ready for Asian challenge in Nokia hoop

CEBU, Philippines - The country’s top high school players composing the Nokia-RP Team Under-16 are all set to wage hardcourt war against their rivals from neighboring Asian countries during the 2nd Nokia Pilipinas Youth Invitational Basketball Championships set from November 5 to 8 at the USC-Main gym.

The four-day tilt is sanctioned by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and is organized by the Rotary Club of Cebu Fuente led by its president Conrado “Rady” Abarintos who is also the Assessment Division chief of the local Bureau of Customs.

The event serves as tune-up games for the FIBA-Asia Youth Championships on November 19-29 in Malaysia.

Aside from host RP of coach Eric Altamirano, the other competing teams are Iran, Japan and Chinese-Taipei. They will play in a single round robin format.

The RP Youth squad is composed of Cedrick Labing-isa and Kevin Ferrer of UST, Dan Sara and Raf Nayve of San Beda College, Angelo Alonino of Perpetual Help College, Paolo Romero, Kiefer Ravena and Von Pessumal of Ateneo, Cris Tolomia of FEU, Jerog Teng of Xavier School, Michael Pate and Rene Sta. Maria of La Salle Greenhills, Emmanuel Bonleon of the Holy Child Academy -Davao, Gabriel Reyes of La Salle-Zobel, Jeoff Javonillar of RTU, Paolo Romero of Ateneo, Prince Caperal of Arellano University, and Nestpr Bantayan of Adamson University.

“We in the Nokia RP Youth Under-16 team have trained long and hard for this tournament and this will give us a better gauge of how far we’ve gone,” said Altamirano during yesterday’s weekly SCOOP-Cebu forum at Baseline Restaurant.

Unfortunately, the Nokia tilt is in conflict with the zonal eliminations of the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL), which will be held on the same dates at the Cebu Coliseum.

Abarintos explained that they cannot move the tournament to a later date because it is very difficult for them to reschedule the flights of the foreign teams. (GGM)   (FREEMAN NEWS)