VIGAN, Ilocos Sur, Philippines —The National Capital Region won the sport that mattered most as it topped secondary boys’ basketball capping its domination of the Palarong Pambansa that concluded yesterday at the President Elpidio Quirino Stadium here.
Bannered mostly by players from reigning NBTC champion and UAAP runner-up National U, the Big City bets flattened a hapless Davao, 100-80, to lord it over the event that is special in the hearts of the delegation coming from the country’s basketball hotbed.
“We’re just happy to win it again,” said NCR coach Goldwin Monteverde, who hiked his Palaro gold count to three including last year’s title reign in San Jose, Antique last year.
Terrence Fortea unleashed a game-best 28 points while Gerry Abadiano and 6-7 Carl Tamayo added 24 and 14, respectively.
Abadiano was later named MVP while Fortea and Tamayo made it to the Mythical First Team.
After sizing up their smaller foes in the early goings, the Bullpups, who were watched by backer Eduard Tio of Freego, made their move late in the opening quarter and then followed it up with a series of runs in the second period to go into the break leading by more than a month, 68-35.
The basketball triumph capped what had been another spectacular performance by NCR, which crowned itself overall champion for the 15th straight year since 2005 after harvesting a total of 96 gold, 70 silver and 47 bronze medals.
Tanker Michaela Mojdeh led the NCR assault by emerging the most bemedaled athlete with six golds and a silver in the elementary division.
Calabarzon, backstopped by multiple gold medal-winning sprinters Jessel Lumapas and Veruel Verdadero, finished second for the fourth straight year with a 54-44-70 (gold-silver-bronze) harvest followed by Western Visayas, which wound up third with a 42-44-52 haul.
Rounding up the top 10 were Central Visayas (26-23-31), Cordillera Administrative Region (25-22-23), Northern Mindanao (23-18-28), Socsargen (21-26-30), Central Luzon (18-21-23), Davao (12-25-25) and Cagayan Valley (11-8-13).
Secondary girls basketball also belonged to NCR after pulverizing Western Visayas, 79-73, at the Caoayan Municipal Gym.
NCR also lorded it over secondary football with a 1-0 victory over Socsargen on a match-clinching goal by Kier John Napolitano in injury time.
Baseball also went to the Big City with a 7-1 win over Mimaropa at the Motorpool Area in Tamag, Vigan.
Calabarzon denied NCR a gold as it snatched the softball mint with an emphatic 10-0 triumph at the Cirilo Lao Construction Compound in Bantay.
Host Ilocos made the hometown folks proud as it turned back fancied Central Visayas, 10-7, and topped secondary 3x3 basketball, which made its debut here.
NCR took the boys’ 3x3 gold with a 21-19 squeaker over Ilocos.
The weeklong event, however, was not without an incident as it was tainted by a sexual harassment scandal by a male teacher to a participating male athlete in dance sport. The suspect is already facing administrative and criminal charges.