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Bacolod City, PhilippinesWednesday, August 29, 2012
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Mustangs against Stingers
in men's basketball opener

Carrying on with their rivalry in local collegiate basketball, the West Negros University Mustangs and the University of St. La Salle Stingers open this year's NOPSSCEA season with a highly-anticipated rematch of last year's finals this Friday, 5 p.m. at the WNU Gym.

The Mustangs will be gunning for its 14 th straight title, fourth under the mentorship of head coach Troy Sarabia, while the Stingers will be out to accomplish what it sets out to do every year, claim back the crown it held back in the 90s.

Stingers coach Eugene Opu-an earlier said they have the same goal every year, to reach the finals and win the championship. Sarabia, on the other hand, said there are some changes in the team as the Mustangs lost some of its key players from last year's champion squad.

In winning the title last year, WNU hosted USLS in Game 1 and beat the Stingers, 65-55. Game 2 at the USLS ended the best-of-three series as the Mustangs prevailed, 71-66, in a highly-emotional match at the La Salle Coliseum.

It was one of the toughest championships the Mustangs had, WNU sports director Tony Agustin said, adding that La Salle seems always to bring out the best in WNU's game.

“Every time the two teams play against each other, it seems that there is a heightened sense of pride and intensity,” Agustin said.

In preparation for this year's NOPSSCEA season, the defending champions had several tune-up games against the Adamson University and Iloilo teams University of San Agustin and the University of Iloilo .

The squad also showed its force in the pre-NOPSSCEA tournament early this month against USLS, University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos , and Colegio de San Agustin-Bacolod.

Although the Stingers placed second runner-up in the pre-NOPSSCEA games, the team bounced back with a big win in Zamboanga del Norte against local college teams.

Meanwhile, the UNO-Recoletos Rams and the CSA-B Eagles will be playing in the second game this Friday, with both teams also eager to assert its presence in the NOPSSCEA tournament.

With its new head coach Gerome Aledron, the Rams are sporting a new look and have displayed a renewed intensity as it finished first runner-up to the Mustangs during the pre-NOPSSCEA games.

“I can't promise a trophy this year but a lot of changes have been made in our team,” Aledron said.

The Eagles, on the other hand, will also be out to challenge WNU's supremacy and will be a threat to USLS and UNO-R's bid to wrestle the crown.

Eagles head coach Lorenzo Solinap said that although he also can not promise anything, he can assure the crowd that they will be seeing a good game from the Eagles every time they play.*NAB

 

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