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Bacolod City, PhilippinesThursday, October 4, 2012
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NOPSSCEA 32nd SEASON
Mustangs bag men’s basketball title
as Rams forfeit Game 2 showdown

The West Negros University Mustangs successfully defended their title in NOPSSCEA men’s basketball with an easy win last night as the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos Rams failed to show up in Game 2 of their best-of-three final series at the WNU Gym.

Mustangs led the series after winning Game 1, 78-77.

At 1:35 p.m. yesterday, the office of NOPSSCEA Committee on Sports chairman Anthony Carlo Agustin received a letter from UNO-R Sports Moderator Ericson Rios stating the team’s unavailability for Game 2.

“We regret to inform you that the academic demands on our student-athletes will not permit our collegiate basketball team to play the second game of its best of-three championship series against West Negros University tonight, but we would abide by the informal commitment our team made to the playing of Friday games,” Rios stated in the letter.

He said the schedule, confirmed in Tournament Commissioner Renato Bravo’s letter of October 1, 2012, falls in the middle of the school’s last week of classes before the final examination on October 8-12.

Rios said they checked the minutes of the July 25, 2012 coaches meeting to see if their coaching staff may any commitment to play middle-of-the-week games and they found the passage: “Mr. Anthony Agustin suggested that if we can include Fridays in the schedule playing days to drum up NOPSSCEA spirit of the students of member schools.”

Rios also said that they checked with some members fo the NOPSSCEA Board if permission was sought or granted for the holding of middle-of-the-week games and were informed that there was none.

“We have condoned the playing of Friday games during the elimination in order to help speed up our collegiate games in anticipation of the PCCL, even if this put the academic standing of our athletes at risk in certain subjects, considering that they have been absent from the same Monday-Wednesday-Friday subjects in the process,” Rios said in the letter.

UNO-R also requested if it was possible for basketball tournament management to belatedly come up with written tournament ground rules so that they would have some concrete basis for decisions over situations not covered in the FIBA Rules or NOPSSCEA’s own rules, not only for the collegiate championship series but for other ongoing basketball tournaments.

TOO LATE

Meanwhile, in his reply to Rios’ letter, obtained by the DAILY STAR from a source, Agustin said that while they appreciate Rios’ suggestion of coming up with additional FIBA/NOPSSCEA rules, the request for the re-setting of the scheduled game was not possible.

He said the scheduled Game 2 had been set by commissioner Bravo way back in September 14 before the NOPSSCEA opening and was re-confirmed and re-announced to everyone last September 23. He also cited a September 27 sports news article in the DAILY STAR that announced the schedule of the best-of-three championship series.

Agustin also pointed out that UNO-R head coach Rolando Aledron personally confirmed on September 30 with Bravo and assistant commissioner Acot about the Game 2 schedule.

He said his office received Rios letter around 2 p.m. yesterday, a few hours before the start of the game and it was not possible to reset it as all the necessary preparations by the sports committee were already made.

WINNER BY DEFAULT

Meanwhile, as there was no announcement on Rams request to move Game 2 to a later date, thousands of WNU students packed the gym last night anticipating for another thrilling match-up between the top two teams in the NOPSSCEA men’s basketball.

One of the students said that classes were suspended from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. yesterday to encourage the WNU community to watch the game and support the Mustangs.

The WNU team arrived at the Gym as scheduled and proceeded with their warm-up exercises. After 15 minutes of waiting for UNO-R, Commissioner Bravo read the Article 20 on FIBA Rules which states that

a team loses by forfeit if 15 minutes after the scheduled starting time, the team is not present or is unable to field five players ready to play. its actions prevent the game from being played, and refuses to play after being instructed to do so by the referee.

The rules also stated that the game is awarded to the opponents and the score recorded is 20-0.

ANOTHER VICTORY

As the Mustangs celebrated their 14th straight title, head coach Troy Sarabia said “a win is still a win” and commended his players for showing great determination all throughout the tournament.

“Our sacrifices paid off. We’ve been practicing morning and afternoon in the past two weeks..the victory would have been more meaningful if Game 2 was played,” Sarabia said.

Agustin, as sports director of the WNU Mustangs, did not reply to the text message from DAILY STAR when asked to comment about his team’s latest victory.

Earlier, he said he was only hoping for a win as it is an uphill climb for the Mustangs in this year’s NOPSSCEA season.*NAB

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