The First Conference of the 2007 Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA) season will resume this Friday with the best-of-three Visayas Division finals pitting inaugural champion M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu City Jewelers against Arthro Kontra Arthritis at the Cebu Coliseum.
Gametime is set at 5 pm with the M. Lhuillier Jewelers of Michel J. Lhuillier and coach Raul "Yayoy" D. Alcoseba figuring in a grudge rematch of sort against Arthro of Jonathan L. Guardo and coach Al Solis.
Arthro is responsible for handing M. Lhuillier rare back-to-back defeats in recent years. First during the MVBA pre-season games and then followed it up during the "Araw ng Dabaw" Invitational basketball tournament two months ago.
With that, revenge will definitely be on top of the Jewelers' agenda. To carry out that task, they will count the most from explosive guards Woodrow Enriquez, Mike Manigo and Stephen Padilla as well as Danny Aying, Alano Caputolan, Marlon Piodo, Niño Ramirez, and Aldrin Ocañada.
The Jewelers crew will have to contend Arthro's fighting force manned by Alex Cainglet, Rino Berame, Gaylord Santos, Michael Luga, Alain Abellanosa, Jerome Gadiane, Leodi Garcia, Raul Redulosa and Chris Diputado.
Game 2 is set on June 3 still at the Cebu Coliseum, while Game 3, if necessary, will be played at a TBA (to be announced) date and venue.
On the other hand, the Holcim Pryce Pharma-MisOr and the Iligan Archangels will kick off their own race-to-2 series for the Mindanao Division crown on June 8 at the Iligan City Gym. Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) will be held on June 8 at the Xavier University Gym in CDO.
The division champions will then clash for the First Conference title in a best-of-three affair.
Alcoseba said they shortened the opening conference of the second MVBA season because the mid-term elections last May 14 greatly hampered their operation.
Alcoseba, however, assured that more teams will be joining the league's second conference this July.
Aside from Iligan, MisOr, Cindy's Tacloban and Duterte Agilas, among those who have already signified their intent to see action in the MVBA cage wars include expansion teams Cebu Landmaster/Lapu-Lapu, International Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IPI)-Mandaue, Hotel Fortuna-Danao and Davao del Norte.