Even without long-time contenders University of the Visayas and Sacred Heart-Ateneo de Cebu, Visayas remains a force to reckon with in the 2019 Chooks-to-Go SM NBTC League National Finals.
Southwestern University took UV’s place as champion in this year’s NBTC Cebu after downing University of San Jose-Recoletos.
For being finalists, both the Baby Cobras and the Baby Jaguars booked their place in this year’s national championship for high school sponsored by Chooks-to-Go, Darlington-Exped Socks, EPSON, Huawei, Freego, Purefoods, Gatorade, Go for Gold, SM, and Molten.
This will be the first time in recent history that neither UV nor SHS-Ateneo is included in the 32-team tournament.
The Baby Green Lancers failed to get past elimination round while the Magis Eagles bowed out in the semifinals.
Still, SWU and USJ-R are no pushovers since the former has Kent Sanchez and speedster Kendall Limana.
SHS-Ateneo became the first non-Luzon NBTC champion in 2015.
They will be joined as Visayas representatives by Iloilo’s Sta. Clarita International School, Bacolod’s STI-West Negros University, Dumaguetue’s St. Louis School of Don Bosco, and Eastern Samar’s Dolores National High School in the week-long showcase of the most promising young talent in the country also presented by TV5 Plus and Lighthouse Events.
The Visayas qualifiers will wage war with 26 other teams in the annual NBTC League Nationals from March 18 to 24 at the MOA Arena.
The tournament semis and finals, alongside the annual All-Star Game, will be aired live on ESPN5. All games, from the seeding round to the championship round, will also be streamed live over at tv5.espn.com
