AJHS-powered RPBC wins 9th and 10th basketball championships
07 Mar 2023
Composed of 10 Ateneo de Manila Junior High School boys and six players from other schools, the RP Basketball Club (RPBC) Born-2008 team annexed its ninth (9th) and tenth (10th) championships last December, winning CityHoops’ “The Judgement” (sic) Basketball League 14U title on December 4, and the United Basketball League (UBL) 15U title on December 18, 2022.
The Ateneo JHS boys rostered in RPBC for these two tournaments were Aiori Aquino (La Storta/9-Fausti), JD Juangco (Cardoner/7-Alfonso), Zane Kallos (Montserrat/8-Ishida), Bugsy Lavarro (La Storta/9-Favre), Javier Lopez (Pamplona/9-Southwell), Q Molina (Cardoner/8-Aranha), Domeng Ngo (Pamplona/7-Pires), Dane Panesa (Montserrat/9-Lalemant), Coco Santos (Cardoner/9-Baena) and Alfonso Tan (Cardoner/9-Baldinucci).
In the CityHoops tournament, RPBC eventually defeated its elimination round tormentor, Blue Knights Basketball Club, 69-64, to win the 14U championship.
In the UBL, after continually dominating its age division, RPBC decided to move up from the 14U to the 15U age bracket to challenge its members by playing against older and more experienced boys. There was great adjustment in physicality and the team wound up as a wild card (or last) entry in the play-offs where they overcame a twice-to-beat disadvantage to beat the top-ranked Pheno ballers. Thereafter, they also defeated the Legends 15U Basketball Club and finally emerged victorious against Manila Hotshots in the championship match, 88-77, to cap a successful 2022 season.
The CityHoops games were held at the Central Fitness and Recreation Center and at Victoria Sports Tower, both located in Quezon City. The UBL tournament was held at the Marikina Sports Center in Marikina City and at Systems Plus Computer College (SPCC) in Caloocan City.
RPBC is coached by multi-titled Ateneo alumnus Patrick Borjal.