MANILA, Philippines – The National Basketball Training Centre (NBTC) crown remained to an overseas selection.
The Fil-Am Nation Select retained its NBTC championship after staving off Phenom Blue Fire-Pasay’s late surge, 64-59, in the weeklong tournament’s finale on Sunday, April 6, at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Angelino Mark put up 32 points and 9 rebounds for the Filipino-American high school selection team, while Caelum Harris added seven markers and 11 rebounds to end his NBTC stint.
Mark fouled out with six minutes left in the fourth quarter before his teammates picked up the slack to survive Phenom’s late rally.
It was the second straight NBTC title for the Fil-Am Nation Select after breaking through last year with their first-ever title in the tournament, which was participated in by high school teams across the nation.
“I just told them to stay focused, stay poised. We knew we were in for this kind of game,” said head coach Byron Scott, a former NBA Coach of the Year winner.
Meanwhile, the Phenom Blue Fire leaned on NBTC’s top-ranked prospect, Kieffer Alas, who recorded 20 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field before flying to Australia for a one-month training camp.
Matthew Jucom contributed eight points, while Bonn Daja had seven markers and 12 rebounds to end their NBTC stint.
Jucom took the Pasay-based team to just one point, 59-60, with 22 seconds left, before Fil-Am nation’s Andrew Miller received an unsportmanlike foul from Lanze Ronquillo, which resulted in a split in the charity stripe and an extra possession for the Fil-Am team.
Miller, Hunter Marumoto, and Eian Lowe then sealed the win with free throws to hand the Fil-Am Select team the title.
The Fil-Am nation ended the tournament unbeaten, carrying over its supremacy from last year when it took down then UAAP champions Adamson Junior Falcons. – Rappler.com