DRANHS draws first blood
In inter-public high school cage tourney
JOVEN Deligero got 19 points while Christian Gumapac and Jemar Pojas made an identical 13 points as the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School (DRANHS) beat Jesus Soriano National High School (JSNHS) 7067, in yesterday's opener of the reformatted Escandor Cup 2017 Inter-Public High School Under 14 Basketball Tournament held at the Almendras Gym Davao City Recreation Center.
DRANHS moved ahead 26-11 at the end of the first period but the hard-fighting JSNHS gave them no reason to celebrate yet as the latter fueled a 26-11 to erase the former's 15-point advantage at the half, tying the game at 37-all.
Bucking on their stamina and chemistry, JSNHS kept its pace against the bolder DRANHS all throughout the third quarter that was observed with series of lead change and deadlocks.
In the final period, Dranhs tried to pull away with the win as they kept a six-point edge behind the combined forces of Deligero, Pojas and Gumapac with four minutes left.
But JSNHS didn't give up easily and tried to answer back.
Both teams fought their hearts out until the last minute, but Dranhs prevailed through the breaks of the game.
Dranhs head coach Ronnie Berato, in an interview with Sun.Star Davao, said it was a tough game against a team who is already intact and much-experienced.
"Mostly kasi sa mga players ko are born 2005 and nadadala sila sa pressure kasi mostly din mga first-timer," said Berato, adding that they were just lucky to have a reliable players - Deligero, Gumapac and Pojas.
JSNHS, for its part, relied on the services of Sean Toloy and Jowell Vergara who scored 11 and nine points, respectively.
Meantime, the Cabantian National High School was still playing against Bernardo Carpio National High School as of this writing.
Before the games, a simple opening program was staged that was attended by Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) executive program officer Ronel Leuterio, who spearheaded the ceremonial toss, SBP commissioner Oscar Salvador, SBP regional commissioner lawyer Francis Calatrava, SBP education committee Billy Cruzada and SBP consultant Macario Cabonce.
During the program, Leuterio announced that they are going to conduct a free clinic for the participating teams set on November 26.
The event is presented by SBP regional director Glenn Escandor.