STREET SPORTS: Titans Still Reign Supreme in Negros

May 6, 2024

The Colegio de Santa-Ana Victorias (CSA-V) Titans added to their rich collection of silverware in Negros Island by winning the 1st Negros Island PRISAA Championship with a 93-81 victory over Colegio de San Agustin-Bacolod (CSA-B) Eagles last April 30 before a jam-packed crowd at the STI-West Negros University Gym.

The Titans rallied from an early 11-point first half deficit and leaned on their vast championship experience and the heroics of veteran mainstays big man Dale Canoy and shooter Shane Dichoso to dominate the second half and pull off the victory over the Eagles, who were looking for their first provincial championship since the early 1990s. The Titans will be representing Negros island in the national PRISAA games slated on July 20-26 in Legaspi City, Albay. The Eagles, who beefed up their line-up with some blue chip transferees from other schools, will be aiming for revenge when they clash with the Titans anew in another championship series, this time in the NOPSSCEA best-of-3 Finals, slated in May. The bronze medal trophy went to LCC Blue Panthers, who defeated the UNO-R Rams in their own game for third place. The tournament saw the participation of 8 private schools, 6 from Negros Occidental and 2 from Negros Oriental.

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The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) started last April 6, 2024 and it has been an exciting first month of the season so far with a lot of teams beefing up their line-ups. Our very own local teams the Negros Muscovados and the Bacolod City of Smiles also have a very different look from that of 2023 and got a lot of blue-chip players. The Muscovados are virtually a new look team, adding ex-PBA players Renz Palma and Alvin Capobres as well as as PBA 3×3 players Hubert Cani, Darryl Pascual, Jem Cruz, JR Raflores, Jeff Comia, and Enrique Caunan. They also added veteran point guard Ivan Ludovice and big man Mark Atabay. So far they have had a good start to the season, starting off 3-0 before losing their last 2 games to powerhouse teams Zamboanga and Abra and currently have a 3 win 2 loss record. The Bacolod City of Smiles on the other hand have added former star San Miguel Beer point guard Alex Cabagnot as playing coach as well as PBA veteran Rashaun Mccarthy but both have yet to play this season as they still have commitments to a Taiwan team. As a Peromingan, Mac Sabellina and LA Casinillo as well as MPBL veteran Danny Marilao result, Bacolod has struggled out of the gate with a 1-4 win-loss record. Leading the charge for the City of Smiles as for now are former PBA 3×3 players Nicole Ubalde. JJ Espanola, Ralph Salcedo, Tricky . It will be a long and exciting season and it will be fun to watch again how our local teams will fare

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The NBA playoffs have already started and let me take a look at the Western Conference playoffs. So far as of writing. Stephen Curry, Lebron James and Kevin Durant will not be part of the second round of the playoffs, the first time that has happened since 2005 that neither of the star Hall-of-Fame trio will be playing in May. It looks like there is a changing of the guard in the Western Conference. The Golden State Warriors, with 4 NBA titles from 2015-2022, didn’t make the playoffs despite still having their core trio of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, losing to the Sacramento Kings in the play-in round. The LA Lakers of Lebron James and Anthony Davis fell to the defending champion Denver Nuggets, 4-1, in the first round of the playoffs despite leading for most of the 5 games, with star Denver guard Jamaal Murray the highlight of the series, hitting game winners in Games 2 and 5 to eliminate the Lakers. The Phoenix Suns, despite having a superstar trio in Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, were swept 4-0 by the upcoming Minnesota Timberwolves led by star guard led by their exciting young players Shai Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Josh Giddey, Jaylin Williams and Lou Dort also advanced to the second round after sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans 4-0 and await the winner of the Dallas Mavericks vs LA Clippers series, which currently stands at 3-2 in favor of the Mavericks. Anthony Edwards and big men Karl Towns and Rudy Gobert. The Suns never found their groove throughout the season as their star trio were constantly injured one after the other. The No 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder.*

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.