4 foreign teams vying in NBC

Teams from Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam will see action in the second NBC (National Basketball Conference) international invitational tournament set here on November 23-28.

NBC president Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla bared that a qualifying tournament among local teams will be held on November 7-20 to determine the top four teams that will join the visiting squads in the invitational cagefest.

“With the success of last year's first invitational event, we decided to make it a regular part of our program,” said Padilla.

Quezon-Villa Anita won last year's invitational tourney by beating Indonesia's Panasia cagers.

Among the local teams that will compete in the qualifying tourney are newly crowned NBC titlist Firefly-Iligan, Ozamiz Cotta, Pagadian, Montana Pawnshop-Davao, MP Pacman-Gensan, Toyota-Iloilo Warriors, Baguio Centennial, Cebu, Laguna, Cavite-Tagaytay and Malabon-Spring Cooking Oil.

Three more teams from Manila, Bacolod and Zamboanga City have expressed their desire to join next years first NBC tourney.

According to NBC executive vice president and Tagaytay Mayor Bambol Tolentino, sec-gen Tito Palma has started talking to prospective new teams and the returning ones.

“Well have a bigger, better season starting in February 2008,” said Tolentino. “There will be two events �" the regional cup and the national cup.”