UL-Dagupan Team A, Discovery Perlas rule NBA 3X

MANILA, Philippines — UL-Dagupan Team A from Pangasinan and Discovery Perlas emerged as the new champions of the NBA 3X Philippines 2018 presented by AXA Men’s Open and the Women’s Open divisions, respectively, Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall.

The two teams bested their toughest competition in the finals, with the young team from University of Luzon composed of Mario Angelito Torio, Reynald Ballesteros, Robert Caasi Jr. and Julius Tiburcio outlasting their physical match against Metro-Manila-based SAN-C. Discovery Perlas, consisted of Joy Galicia, Angeli Gloriani, Ella Rodrigues and Jhenn Angeles, outplayed Team Fast Track.

The eighth edition of the contest drew a large audience that witnessed outstanding competition in the Boys Under-13, Boys Under-16, Boys Under-18, Girls Under-18, Men’s Open and Women’s Open divisions on August 25-26.

North Luzon dominated the annual three-on-three competition as teams that qualified in the Benguet eliminations on August 11-12 emerged champions in four out of six divisions: Boys Under-13, Girls Under-13, Boys Under-16 and Men’s Open.

The Greyhounds of Baguio City (Rieken Espinosa, Dreyxius Castillo, Kyle Patrick Margarata, Adam Floyd Darden) defeated Metro Manila’s Team Palanan in the U13 Division while Balon Dagupan, a team of Pangasinan school girls (Regimay Castres, Rosemarie de los Santos, Jane de Vera and Fionna Camangeg) overcame HIMC Monarchs A of Holy Infant Montessori Caloocan for the Girls U13 crown.

Another team from the North, SLU A from St. Louis University Baguio (Jaudenes Parone, Dennis De Vera, Manson Lee Cerantes and Francis Almazan) dominated Braderhud in the Boys U16 category. HIMC Monarchs 2 of Caloocan (John Dominic Geli, Jeth Monteleyola, Renzo David Apolonia and Alfon Jazmin) edged out the Caloocan Supremos C in the Boys Under-18 finals.

In the AXA Division, 2017 runner-up Go Elite of Edster Sy, Ronald Lim, Nicolo Chua and Florante Salazar came out on top after beating the CL Warriors.

The much-awaited Celebrity Division crowned Killa Crossover of former NCAA MVP Sudan Daniel, actors Marco Alcaraz and Billy Crawford, and rugby player Eric Tai as champions.
David Carlos, the Slam Dunk King, remained undefeated in the Slam Dunk competition.

Five-time NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway Sr. and NBA Champion Brian Scalabrine of the Boston Celtics graced the culmination of the event. The tournament saw 1,200 players — 456 from the Baguio eliminations and 744 from the Metro Manila qualifiers — participate in the preliminaries.