Carcar Mayor’s Cup hoop gets underway on Friday

CEBU, Philippines – Four commercial teams will vie for top honors in the open division of the Mayor Nice Apura Cup 2014 basketball tournament, which will kick off on November 7 at the Carcar City Sports Complex.

The participating squads are ASPA, Abrenica Engineering, Jomangs Surplus and Cebuana Lhuillier.

The organizers led by Julie Flores and City Councilor Anthony John Apura formally launched the event yesterday at Sunburst Restaurant-One Mango branch.

Flores, who also serves as the tournament director, said they want to bring to Carcar a highly competitive basketball action, even as he urged the participating teams to recruit the best players as much as possible.

For his part, Apura, son of Mayor Nice Apura who is also the city's sports commission chairman, hopes that the the five-day tilt will inspire their local players to improve their game. "We expect the best game this year," he said.

The four contenders will play in a single round robin format, with the top two qualifiers slugging it out for the championship in a do-or-die match. The champion will receive P50,000, while the second and third will take home P30,000 and P20,000, respectively. The fourth placer will get a consolation prize of P10,000 on condition that it has not forfeited any game.

Aside from the open division, the other categories to be contested are the Sangguniang Kabataan, Inter-Barangay, 21-under, and 21-above.

Carcar is always loaded with sporting extravaganza as soon as its fiesta celebration is approaching because aside from basketball, Flores said they are also holding volleyball, tennis and motocross events.

The main highlight, however, is the exhibition game between the University Green Lancers against the former PBA stars on November 13. (GGM) (FREEMAN)