CECABA playoffs begins tomorrow

CEBU, Philippines - Five teams led by the top seeded New Millennium Hardware '95 (14-1) will be armed with twice-to-beat incentives over the lower-ranked squads as the Cebu Eastern College Alumni Basketball Association's 12th Dr. Chen Lieh Fu Memorial Cup enters its playoff stage this Sunday at the City Sports Club-Cebu gym.

The rest of the qualifiers that will enjoy similar advantage going into the next phase of the tournament are the First Family Appliance Circle '96 (12-3), Shell '80s, Dimsum Frito 2003, and Dewfoam '88 (10-5). Class '80s and 2003 actually ended the elimination round with identical 11-4 win-loss records, but the Shell-backed side skippered by Chester C. Cokaliong got the higher placing by virtue of a simple tie.

In tomorrow's double-header, the fifth-ranked Dewfoam '88 will go up against the 6th seed Best World Lifestyle 2004 in the first game at 1:30pm, while the No.2 qualifier Class '96 will take on the 9th seed JV Shop n Shop '97 in the main match at 3 pm.

Class '95 will see action on Tuesday yet against the 10th seed Jepoy '99 at 7:30pm, right before the fourth-ranked Class 2003 will mix it up with the 7th seed M16 Disco/Las Vegas KTV '94 at 9pm.

The winners in the crossover quarterfinals will play another single round robin in the semifinals. The top two finishers will then slug it out for the championship in a best-of-three series, while the No. 3 and No. 4 will figure in a sudden-death duel for third place.  (FREEMAN)