By CYRUS M. GARDE
BACOLOD City — The Top 12 teams in the Monico Cup basketball tournament will play knockout matches today and tomorrow at the Bacolod Arts and Youth Sports (BAYS) Center.
Rolando “Jack” Marañon, tournament manager, said the top two teams in each bracket will play and the winning six teams will advance to the crossover knockout quarterfinals.
The original 37 teams were reduced to 12 after the single round eliminations.
The top two teams in each of the six brackets are: Barangays 18 and Handumanan in Bracket A; Barangays 24 and 16, Bracket B; Barangays 35 and Barangay Singcang–Airport, Bracket C; Barangays 22 and Tangub, Bracket D; Barangays 10 and Villamonte, Bracket E; and Barangays 19 and Banago, Bracket F.
Today, starting 1:30 p.m., Brgy. Villamonte, the No. 2 team in Bracket E, will face Brgy. 19, the top team in Bracket F.
The game that will follow is that of Brgy. Banago, No. 2 team in Bracket E, against Brgy. 10, top team in Bracket E; and Brgy. 35, top team in Bracket C, against Brgy. Tangub, No. 2 team in Bracket D.
Tomorrow, Brgy. Singcang–Airport, No. 2 team in Bracket C, will face Brgy. 22, Bracket D’s top team; Brgy. 24, Bracket B’s top team, will clash with Brgy. Handumanan, Bracket A’s second team; Brgy. 18, top team in Bracket A, will slug it out against Brgy. 16, the No. 2 team in Bracket B.
The Top 6 remaining teams will slug it out in the knockout quarterfinals.
The Top 3 teams will wait for the three losing teams having their own round-robin matches, with the top team among them joining the three awaiting winner teams for the crossover semifinals.
A meeting with coaches was scheduled at 9 a.m. on July 9, Marañon said./PN
