Asiabasket Dasmariñas Championship kicks off on November 3
10 squads are set to slug it out for glory as the highly-anticipated 2023 Asiabasket Dasmariñas Championship opens curtain on November 3 at the 5,000-seater Dasmariñas Arena in Cavite.
The tournament will see teams divided into two groups and will compete under a single round robin format in the eliminations, which will run for a total of five days until November 8. There will be a one-day break set on November 7.
The top four teams from Group A and B will then advance to the crossover knockout quarter finals slated for November 9 before the semifinals and the championship round on November 10 and 11, respectively.
Statham Academy, MisOr Mustangs, Pilipinas Aguilas, Makati Circus Music Festival, and the Ateneo Blue Eagles are bunched in Group A while composing Group B are the Benilde Blazers, Shawarma Shack, Corsa Tires, Phuket Waves, and hometown bet Dasmariñas Monarchs.
The Pilipinas Aguilas, bannered by two world imports in former NCAA MVP Prince Eze and ex-UE Red Warrior Moustapha Arafat, will open hostilities when it takes on Makati Circus Music Festival at 1 p.m. followed by the 3 p.m. clash of Shawarma Shack and Gerald Anderson-led Corsa Tires.
This will be Anderson's third time seeing action in Asiabasket after joining Th3rd Floor-KalosPH Cooly during the Sportsclick AsiaBasket International Championship in Malaysia back in April and Corsa Tires in the 2023 Bola TV AsiaBasket Las Piñas Championship last July.
Meanwhile, MisOr Mustangs will feature the backcourt duo of Teytey Teodoro and Axel Doromal as it opens its campaign at 5 p.m. against Statham Academy, which will lean on a slew of veteran overseas cagers led by founder Taylor Statham.
The youth-laden Benilde Blazers will test their mettle against the Dasmariñas Monarchs at 7 p.m. to close out the opening day quadruple-header with the home team tipped to be reinforced by former NCAA stars Mike Harry and Hamadou Laminou.
The Blazers will be coached by no less than Rajko Toroman, a Serbian tactician that has multiple coaching experiences in different parts of the world and was the architect of Gilas Pilipinas program.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles and Phuket Waves, on the other hand, will begin their bids on November 4 when they lock horns with Statham Academy and Corsa Tires, respectively.
To wrap it all up, Asiabasket will hold a concert on the heels of the finals on November 12 with Filipino rapper Al James set to serenade the fans alongside Pinoy bands Mayonnaise and Nobita.
