STREET SPORTS: World Class Pool in MassKara Festival

October 2, 2023

The 2023 MassKara Festival is just around the corner, and one event most anticipated by Bacolodnons will be the 2nd Mayor Albee Benitez 10-Ball Billards Tournament on October 8-12, 2023 at the SM City Bacolod North Atrium Grounds. Billiards aficionados will get to see pool legends like Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante live.

Other big names who could be seeing action are international campaigners Demosthenes Pulpol, a World 10-ball semifinalist in 2008; Antonio Gabica, a gold medalist in the 2006 Asian Games & a runner-up in the 2013 World 9-ball pool, as well as, local bet Ramil “Bebing” Gallego, who won several titles in Japan and the Bangkok leg of the 2006 San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour. Fans will also get to see how the local billiards players from the province who have registered will fare against these big name players. The tournament which has registered 122 players, offers a huge purse of P350K to the champion and P100k to the runner-up. So expect a lot of slam-bang action, trick shots and safety battles from these pool wizards.

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Gilas Pilipinas concluded its journey at the FIBA World Cup with a 1-4 record. The Filipinos started by dropping their first assignment, 87-81, to the Dominican Republic despite a World Cup record crowd of 38,115 in attendance at the Philippine Arena. Then they lost their next 2 assignments in the group stages, 80-70, to Angola, and 90-83 to Italy, respectively to fall out of contention and drop to the classification round. In the classification round, the Filipinos fell to South Sudan, 87-68, before salvaging a sense of pride by beating long-time Asian rival China, 96-75, to finish in 24th place among the 32 teams participating. Despite being touted as the best Philippine team ever, beefed up by the presence of NBA player Jordan Clarkson, 7-foot-3 NBA G-leaguer Kai Sotto and highly-touted Fil-Am AJ Edu, the team still fell short of its high expectations by the fans, who were hoping for Gilas to qualify for at least the second round as host of the World Cup. Much of the failure was pointed to the decision-making of head coach Chot Reyes, who in my opinion, made questionable coaching decisions and substitution patterns in the 4th quarter, especially in the first 2 games against Dominican Republic and Angola that cost us those winnable games down the stretch. I think team cohesion was also a factor, as Clarkson and Sotto joined the team late and missed some preparation games by Gilas in China, thus disrupting the team chemistry of Gilas. The pinoy fans will be hoping for a better showing in the Asian Games, with the team now being handled by new head coach Tim Cone.

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The 2023 FIBA World Cup came to a close with a surprise winner, football-crazy Germany beating Serbia in the final 83-77 to win their first ever FIBA World Cup trophy. The Germans, led by NBA veterans Dennis Schroder, Daniel Theiss, brothers Franz and Moriz Wagner and sharpshooter Andreas Obst, went unbeaten throughout the tournament with an 8-0 record. In the semifinals, in what was probably the best game of the tournament, the Germans beat the pre-tournament favorite United States, 113-111, despite the USA having their usual array of NBA-All Stars and flashy NBA scorers like Anthony Edwards, Brandon Ingram, Tyrese Haliburton, Austin Reaves in the line-up. Despite the US sending what is called as a Team B line-up with the absence of players like Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Jason Tatum among others, they were still the favorites to win it all due their talent and athleticism. Instead they finished in 4th place, even losing the bronze medal game to Canada. It seems the rest of the world is no longer intimidated by the US NBA all-star players and the NBA style of play. The US lost twice to European teams Lithuania and Germany, teams that rely more on passing and teamwork than the one-on-one and extensive dribbling style that is the staple of the NBA. It is looking more that in order to be successful in FIBA tournaments, the European style or Euroball should be adapted. The flashy dribbling and one-on-one plays seen in the NBA are easily stopped by the physicality and zone defense of the FIBA game.*

Pio Alessandro S. Ozoa is a graduate of BS Computer Science at USLS. A big fan of sports, especially basketball. A late bloomer when it comes to playing the game, he watches sports often on livestream often as a deviation from the stress of everyday life.