Niños still undisputed champs Cap CVIRAA dominance with gold medal in chaotic basketball final

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Niños capped their decades long dominance in the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) Meet with a golden performance in secondary boys basketball event anchored on a 91-73 victory over host Bohol Province in their chaotic championship match yesterday at the Holy Name University (HNU) gymnasium here.

Still the kingpins of the annual sports conclave, Cebu City finished the multi-sport joust with an insurmountable medal haul of 114 golds, 69 silvers and 80 bronzes to clinch the overall title for the nth time.

Bohol Province came out second with 47 golds, 44 silvers and 71 bronzes, while Lapu-Lapu City surprised the field after emerging as third overall with 35 golds, 31 silvers and 26 bronzes.

Dumaguete City returned to CVIRAA after the Negros Island Region was dissolved at fourth spot with a 28-22-28 gold-silver-bronze tally, relegating Cebu Province to just fifth with a 27-54-40 g-s-b haul.

Rounding up the top 19 in the medals table were Mandaue (24-47-39), Tagbilaran (24-21-18), Negros Oriental (13-14-21), Danao (11-17-27), Bayawan (11-6-9), Naga (6-3-9), Talisay (5-6-15), Bogo (5-4-3), Toledo (2-5-6), Carcar (1-2-5), Tanjay (1-2-2), Siquijor (0-4-3), Bais (0-1-4), and Guinhulngan (0-0-5).

The final day of action in the week-long competition saw a tumultuous basketball final between Cebu City and host Bohol.

Tension flared with 2:28 into halftime when Bohol’s assistant coach threatened and attempted to hit hard lead referee Cyrus Von Sojor from Tanjay that eventually paved the way for a technical timeout.

Sojor decided to stop officiating the match in fear of his safety and also to avoid another trouble from the hometown crowd, said tournament manager Aurelio Eslawan.

On the other end, Bohol’s assistant coach was escorted outside of the court to avoid another commotion.

Though it is not allowed in the FIBA rule, DepEd-7 sports division chief Luz Jandayan pacified both camps and asked the technical committee to just continue the game. It took around 10 minutes to resolve the issue.

Cebu City did not question the decision anymore and just let Tagbilaran City’s Emmanuel Boldo replace the lead referee from Tanjay.

It was the first time in CVIRAA history that a referee has been replaced during a certain game, and a championship at that.

As the match resumed, the Niños became more challenged, with Steve Nash Enriquez leading the charge.

Enriquez dropped 12 of his topscoring 27 points in the third canto including back-to-back triples as they started to blow the Bol-anons away.

The Niños continued to pounce on, posting the biggest lead at 20 points before the end of the third period. Bohol couldn’t get out of that deep hole the rest of the way.

Four Niños fouled out in the final quarter, but the Bol-anons couldn’t take advantage of the situation and eventually bowed down to Cebu City manned by a solid crew from the reigning Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) Juniors champions University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Lancers.

Joshua Yerro, who wowed the full-house crowd with an electrifying dunk in the final stretch, grabbed his second straight MVP award for a fitting final appearance in the CVIRAA. He finished with 13 points.

Over at the Carlos P. Garcia Sports Complex, Cebu City bagged gold medal in elementary football after shutting out Bayawan 8-0.

It was a different story in secondary football final as the Niños fell prey to the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-ADC)-powered Mandaue City, 2-1.  (FREEMAN)