By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

 

DESPITE the imminent threat of super Typhoon Karding last Sunday (September 25), the much-awaited post-pandemic province-wide basketball cagefest dubbed as “Excellent Noodles Cup DBL Pangasinan Inter-Town/City/School U18 Basketball Tournament 2022” still officially unfolded at the Dagupan City’s People’s Astrodome.

Yes, I witnessed the well-orchestrated opening of the tournament organized by the province well-known hoopla organizer Dr. Edil Abalos. A total of twenty-six teams, (20 for the Boys division and six for the Girls category) attended the colorful affair with some entertainment that pleased the crowd especially the Miss Excellent Noodles beauty pageant. Some Pangasinan dignitaries were present to grace the occasion led by Manaoag son Ramon Bautista, Jr. who represented the province chief executive Ramon Guico, III.

Four games were scheduled on the opening day but organizer Dr. Abalos cut off the last two matches to enable participants to return home safely and avoid being trapped in the city by cyclone Karding that was already closing in, with a maximum speed of 185 kilometers per hour. But unlike our neighbor provinces like Tarlac and Zambales, Karding passed through the province with less destructive force of wind and rain and resulted in minimal damages only. Our huge thanks to God.

The first hostility was a lopsided victory for the Urdaneta City boys against Umingan, 87- 49, but the second skirmish between San Carlos City and Sual was a bit close in the first two quarters with the Suasalitos taking the first two quarters, 11-10 and 24-19. The San Carleans shifted their play in the third canto and engineered a suffocating defense in the early third part and successfully confused the taller Suasalitos producing multiple costly passing errors. The San Carleans grabbed the front in the third, 41-38, to the delight of the San Carlos City crowd. The San Carleans accelerated in the fourth and final quarter with the same line of attack and eventually repulsed Sual with 13 points, 59-46.

According to Abalos, hostilities were set to resume on October 1 and 2 in three different venues each day. Villasis for the Eastern Conference, San Jacinto for the Central Conference and Urbiztondo for the Western Conference and three and four matches of each conference were slated to play on October 1. Abalos also said that the October 2 skirmishes of the three conferences will be hosted by Asingan in the Eastern Conference, Mangaldan in the Central Conference and Lingayen in the Western Conference. All 26 teams that entered the tournament will all play in these two days of competitions and all hostilities will start at 8:30 a.m.

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It’s sad to know that the  veteran sports editor of People’s Journal Jose “Joe” Antonio, 69, passed away last September 21. Following his sports writing ability and the many times he interviewed me during my heydays in cycling, I considered him as one of the best sports writer this country had ever produced with his catchy style and easy-to-read accounts, like Al Mendoza, Recah Trinidad, the late Hermie Rivera, Ernie Gonzales, to name some. The proud son of Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, Antonio covered some well-known sporting events abroad and the fabled PBA, NCAA, UAAP in basketball, Tour of Luzon, Tour of PICCA (Philippine Industrial Commercial Cycling Association), Marlboro Tour in cycling, Little League in baseball, world title fight in boxing, marathon, athletics, among others that I can remember. He also briefly worked with Manila Times and the famous tabloid Tempo. My deepest and heartfelt sympathy to his family. The athletes and the media circle will really miss him.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. EPHESIANS 4: 32

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