By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Team Dois Seafood/Its RELX Iloilo capped off its stellar Iloilo City Basketball Club (ICBC) first conference of the year tournament campaign with a championship trophy after sweeping team QL Mortgage in the grand finals last July 1, 2023, held at the Monterosa Subdivision basketball gym, Mandurriao, Iloilo City.
Despite joining the prestigious hoops tournament for the first time, the talented Dois squad showed dominance during the second half of the regular season to clinch the much-needed team meshing which prepared them for the playoffs.
All hard work then paid off after Dois completed a 2-0 sweep over the top-seeded team QL during the crucial Game 2 of the finals, 76-63.
It was a wire-to-wire victory for the championship squad after quickly jumping ahead by as much as 10 points at the end of the opening quarter.
Despite the effort team QL showed to chip away their deficit and place themselves in a favorable position, team Dois just shut every door on them and protected their lead throughout the game.
Team Dois then waxed hot just when the first half was about to expire and shot the lights out to balloon their advantage to 22 points, 44-22.
QL got off to a good start in the second half after draining back-to-back three-pointers but Dois always had answers courtesy of the consistent Rush Rubin.
Rubin halted team QL’s momentum and countered with a foul-counted play which eventually led to another dominant quarter after team Dois picked up their defensive tenacity to force turnovers.
However, at the start of the final period, team QL’s never-say-die attitude rose to the occasion and cut their deficit to just eight points but Ariane Tupas scored a timely basket for team Dois to balloon their lead back to double digits.
After that sequence, team QL never recovered from the game as Dois just poured in its final scoring attack capped off by a Krister Villaruz trey that increased their lead again to 15 points.
With his consistent performance every game, Rubin was hailed as the 2023 ICBC 1st conference Most Valuable Player (MVP) and also led the squad during Game 2 with 20 markers.
The team owners for Dois Seafood/It’s RELX Iloilo are Mr. Manuel Dolar and Mr. Joshua Mana-ay.
Mr. Kris Noel Adricula, president of the ICBC, together with Mr. Peter Oñate, John Paul Sarmiento, Julius Velez, and Aerol John Acurantes would like to thank B Lifestyle Complex, Selecta, and Medal Sportswear.
Congratulations, team Dois!
