It’s been an up-and-down tournament for these two squads, but one has a chance to have a winning record. We should see an intense battle this Friday.

Catch the game this Friday, July 28th, at 7:30 PM.

NorthPort Batang Pier (5-5)

  • Paul Zamar
  • Joshua Munzon
  • Kent Salado
  • Mer Ayaay
  • Arvin Tolentino

After a solid start that saw them win five of their first six games, North Port just kept on stumbling. They have now dropped four straight contests, with the most recent being a 118-112 defeat against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. It was more one-sided than the score indicated.

Leading scorer Arvin Tolentino scored 20, maintaining his best run yet. He’s at 22 points per game in the tournament, while also filling it with 6.4 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 1.7 blocks, and 3.0 threes per game. John Calma backed him up by chipping in 22 points off the bench. Sadly, guards Paul Zamar and Joshua Munzon both struggled, combining for just 17 points on 5-of-17 shooting, which meant that the other two’s good effort were wasted.

We’ll see how well they can bounce back. We may see the role players shine, like Kent Salado (16 pts, 7 asst) and Fran Yu (19 pts, 5 stls), who each contributed well in the recent outing.

Converge FiberXers (5-5)

  • Alec Stockton
  • Jeron Teng
  • Justin Arana
  • Michael Nieto
  • Jeo Ambohot

The FiberXers snapped a two-game winning streak this past Friday after losing to the NLEX Road Warriors, 112-104. Defense was out of whack as they allowed Sean Anthony, Kevin Alas, and Don Trollano to combine for 74 points, 14 assists, and 11 threes.

We’ll see if the rough performance can wake them up. Getting shown up like that usually does the trick. That said, though, the offense is still looking for that one legit firepower. Converge boasts a balanced attack courtesy of five players (Jerrick Balanza, Adrian Wong, Michael Nieto, Jeron Teng, and Alec Stockton) averaging in double figures between 10 and 15 PPG, which is mostly good to watch, except it can only bring you to a certain level overall, as seen in the mediocre record. 

Let’s see who steps up to close the team’s tournament nicely. Maybe Justin Arana can, given how he powered for 30 and 25 points in two of the previous three games.

PREDICTION:

Handicap: NorthPort (+3) wins.

Total: The total goes under 202.