CEBU, Philippines - The country's premier pre-season college basketball tournament brings to the Queen City of the South two of Manila's top squads in De La Salle and the University of the East for three days of what will surely be intense competition.
Looking to defend their home turf are home teams in CESAFI defending champion University of Visayas along with the University of San Carlos and Southwestern University.
All teams, competing in Group A of the tournament, are looking to book a quarterfinals berth that begins in the first week of June.
Idle University of Perpetual Help is atop Group A with a 3-1 record while Jose Rizal University is at 3-2. SWU is 2-0 having played only two matches.
La Salle is at an even 1-1 while UE sports a 1-2 record. USC is 1-2 while the UV Green Lancers are surprisingly winless in three starts.
Meanwhile, there will be a Meet and Greet for Cebu basketball fans with La Salle's Jeron Teng, Arnold Van Opstal, and Thomas Torres as well as UE's Roi Sumang, Chris Javier, and Moustaph Arafat at the Sarrosa International Hotel at 11:30am on May 23. On that day, La Salle begins its Cebu joust against SWU at 7 pm, right before UE will take on UV at 5 pm. (FREEMAN)