PBA Youngstars caging starts in various regions

MANILA, Philippines - The Coca-Cola PBA Youngstars basketball tournament kicks off in various venues throughout the country today with the Metro Manila eliminations slated at the Ateneo Blue Eagle gym.

Thirteen teams comprise the Metro Manila leg of the event which attracted 120 squads in the regional eliminations featuring players aged 13 to 16 years.

Provincial legs will be held simultaneously in Pampanga, Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Pangasinan, Laoag, Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

In all, 133 teams are seeing action in the second staging of the meet topped by Taytay last year behind a team featuring members of the San Beda Red Cubs.

Each province will have 10 teams competing, with the champion advancing to the regional finals set May 10-12.

Site for the regional finals will be in Pampanga for Northern Luzon, Batangas for Southern Tagalog, Davao for Mindanao, and Cebu for the Visayas.

Vying for the Northern Luzon crown are the champion teams from Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Laoag, while champions teams from Batangas, Cavite and Laguna clash for the Southern Luzon title.

The Visayas championship will be disputed by No. 1 teams from Cebu, Bacolod, and Iloilo, while battling for Mindanao supremacy are elite squads from Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

Regional winners will qualify for the May 19 to 26 national finals where they will be joined by two entries from Metro Manila.

All six national finalists will figure in single round-robin preliminaries. The top two dispute the title in a winner-take-all showdown.