THE innovative one-on-one tournament of the National Basketball League (NBL), its women’s division WNBL, and Isolation Basketball Championship (IBC) was successfully held at the weekend with Allana Lim and Teytey Teodoro among the inaugural winners.
Designed to deviate from the traditional way of staging one-on-one competitions, the NBL-WNBL-IBC 1v1 tournament had organizers classifying players according to their weight.
Ms. Lim, who will play for the Parañaque Lady Aces in the coming season of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL), ruled the light heavyweight division while former Barangay Ginebra player Teodoro won the men’s heavyweight division in the proceedings held last Saturday at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.
In winning the women’s lightweight heavyweight title, Ms. Lim beat Snow Peñaranda (20-17).
Ms. Lim pulled away after scoring four straight points in the third and final round of the contest.
Mr. Teodoro, meanwhile, defeated Arnaud Noah (20-15) in the main event for the men’s side.
Other results saw Raymart Amil blank Marvin Baracael (10-0) in the men’s welterweight for a technical knockout, which means a win with a margin of 10 points or more; Jhenn Angeles defeat Angelica De Austria in the women’s lightweight (17-6); Jolina Go win over Nicole Delos Reyes (14-4) in the women’s featherweight; and Topeng Lagrama beat Mark Tamayo (18-8) in the featherweight class.
Two matches, meanwhile, ended in a free-throw shootout at the end of regulation with Girly Villaflores edging Jo Razalo (19-17) in the women’s heavyweight and Sthefanie Venture winning over Nicole Cancio (14-12) in the women’s welterweight.
Officials of the NBL and WNBL said the 1v1 tournament served as an initial offering for their new season which they hope to kick up with the 5-on-5 tournament in the middle of the year.
It is also something they were looking to incorporate in the succeeding seasons.
The inaugural NBL-WNBL-IBC 1v1 basketball was held under strict health and safety protocols and guided by the Games and Amusements Board and the local government unit concerned. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
