Powerade-RP 5 takes on North, South teams in PBA All-Star

MANILA, Philippines – Powerade-Team Pilipinas’ hard grind continues in the coming Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) All-Star weekend. Fresh from a two-game sweep of the visiting Australian selection Hoopdreamz, Team Pilipinas will next face the North and South squads during the All-Star break. A third game is scheduled where the Nationals take on a combined North and South teams. The North squad will have the quintet of Marc Pingris, Lordy Tugade, Enrico Villanueva, Paul Artadi and MacMac Cardona as starters with former RP team coach Chot Reyes calling the shots from the sidelines. Reyes’ North team will be the first to test Team Pilipinas’ mettle when they travel to Victorias City, Negros Occidental on April 22 while coach Tim Cone’s South squad will face the Yeng Guiao-mentored Nationals on April 24 in Panabo City, Davao. Danny Seigle, Eric Menk, Dondon Hontiveros, Jimmy Alapag and Jay Washington will be the South team’s starting unit. All players, except Washington, donned the Philippine colors in the 2007 FIBA-Asia Men’s basketball championship in Tokushima, Japan. The North and South starters will then combine into one team and will face the Nationals on April 26 for the final game of the exhibition series. Reyes, who coached the RP 5 in the Japan FIBA tournament that served as a Beijing Olympics qualifier, will handle the combined team that will be reinforced by imports previously not selected by PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios. The three-game exhibition series serves as part of the nationals’ training and preparation for the 2009 FIBA-Asia meet in China, the tournament being the qualifier for next year’s World Basketball Championship in Istanbul, Turkey. The starters from both the North and South teams were voted in by fans during the month-long balloting done by the PBA during game days and out-of-town matches. Hontiveros got the most number of fan votes with 38,044 followed by Washington (32,372), Seigle (32,048), Alapag (31,482) and Pingris (30,086). The rest of the voting had Menk tallying 29,538, Tugade with 16,934, Cardona 16,972, Artadi 14,718 and Villanueva 14,212. Reserve players of both squads will be selected by the rest of the PBA coaches while Barriors will choose the four imports that will reinforce the two All-Star units. – GMANews.TV