Grudge rematch
Talisay City seeks Samsam Gullas Cup in rematch of 2013 finals with rival Minglanilla
TALISAY City and Minglanilla will face off in the best-of-3 series for the 1st Samsam Gullas Cup, First District Inter-Cities/ Municipalities 20-Under basketball tournament at the Talisay City Sports and Cultural Center in Poblacion, Talisay City starting at 9p.m.
On the other hand, San Fernando will host the knockout game for third place against Carcar City at the San Fernando Sports Center at 6 p.m.
Just like in the 2013 when the tournament was still named after Samsam’s predecessor, his grandfather Cong. Eduardo Gullas--Talisay and Minglanila faced each other in the finals.
That time, Talisay swept Minglanilla in the best-of-3 affairs and in the revival of the district-wide competition, the latter is hoping to reverse the outcome this time.
Talisay holds a two-game win over Minglanilla in the elimination round and with its superior line-up, the Aqua City team is bound to score another victory if Minglanilla won’t make the necessary adjustments.
For one, Minglanilla has the most prolific and the tournament leading scorer Marc Glen Nebril who averages 20.9 points in 10 games. They also have the league’s best passer in Steven Silva, who has 4.7 assists per game.
But Talisay has a deeper bench as one of its most potent weapon Jhiey Paraldo could be unstopabble in open court and in post-up games.
Paraldo will be back-stopped by Richmond Lapinid, the league’s leading rebounder with 11.9 rebounds per game and Denzel Sabroso among others.
Paraldo and Lapinid are sure Mythical 5 awardees along with Nebril and his teammate Jiesel Tarrosa and San Fernando’s blazing gun Roland Alferez. Among the five, the Most Valuable Player will be selected and one the players of Minglanilla and Talisay is going to be named Finals MVP.
Meanwhile, Jie Lloyd Halichic and Wendell Cadampog of Sibonga topped the steals and blocks statistics, respectively. Halichic averaged 4.0 steals per game, while Cadampog had 1.8 blocks per game.