(C) LYR
By: Rey Alonsagay
After the first four days of competition of the elimination round in Conference 1 at the LYR Cup 2022, four teams have come out on top and advanced to the Quarterfinal Round of this year’s Mindanao Collegiate Championship. They are the Notre Dame of Midsayap, Agro Industrial Foundation College, Jose Maria College, and the Holy Trinity College.
In Conference 1 of the LYR CUP 2022, there were eight teams participating in the tournament and they were divided into two groups, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Quarterfinal Round. In Group A, they were composed of St. John Paul II College (SJPC), Agro Industrial Foundation College (AGRO), North Davao Colleges Panabo (NDCP), and Notre Dame of Midsayap (NDMC). While in Group B, they were composed of Holy Cross of Davao College (HCDC), Jose Maria College (JMC), Cor Jesu College (CJC), and Holy Trinity College (HTC).
Group A’s NDMC and AGRO advanced to the Final 8
In Group A, Notre Dame of Midsayap (NDMC) cruised through the elimination round with a 3-0 record and earned Group A’s top spot after beating SJPC (80-58), AGRO (79-70), and NDCP (79-41). While Agro Industrial Foundation College (AGRO) grabbed the number two seed after beating NDCP (120-69) and SJPC (97-91), but lost to NDMC (79-70).
The biggest factor on NDMC’s undefeated record has been their defense as they grabbed about 15 steals per game, allowed their opponents to only score below 70 points per game, also allowing them to just shoot around 32 percent from the field and just 21 percent from the three-point line.
AGRO’s offense and rebounding has been beneficial for them as they advanced to the next round. They averaged 96 points per game, grabbed 47 rebounds per game, and shared the ball well as a team with an average of 23 assists per contest.
Group B’s JMC and HTC moves on to the Quarterfinals
In Group B, the Jose Maria College (JMC) and the Holy Trinity College earned the number 1 and number 2 seeds respectively thru the quotient system, after they are tied with Cor Jesu College (CJC) with a similar win-loss record of 2-1.
Group B’s number 1 seed, JMC won their opening match against CJC, 88-85, then made a dominating win against HCDC, 90-63, but narrowly lost to HTC in their final game of the eliminations. While the number 2 seed, HTC opened their own campaign with an 81-76 victory over HCDC, then narrowly lost to CJC, 100-99, and then narrowly edged out and won against JMC, 91-90.
Both JMC and HTC are almost equal in their point production during the elimination round with an average of about 89 points per game. But JMC shared the ball much better as a team with an average of 27 assists per game. While HTC had a better rebounding average of about 48 per game and a field shooting average of 44.6 percent per contest during Group B action.
In the quarterfinal round, Notre Dame College of Midsayap will face Holy Trinity College on November 23, while the Agro Industrial Foundation will face Jose Maria College on November 24. All quarterfinal games will be held at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.