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NorthPort leaning on young, energetic roster

Sports | Basketball

NorthPort leaning on young, energetic roster

By Mark Rey Montejo

At A Glance

NorthPort is one of the hottest teams alongside San Miguel Beer and NLEX in the 2024 PBA Philippine Cup right now and one of the factors for its successful run is its young and energetic roster.

NorthPort is one of the hottest teams alongside San Miguel Beer and NLEX in the 2024 PBA Philippine Cup right now and one of the factors for its successful run is its young and energetic roster.

NorthPort Batang Pier (PBA Images)

The Batang Pier, who notched their fourth consecutive victory courtesy of a 112-96 win over the TNT Tropang Giga last Friday, April 5, are taking full advantage of their young guns who, according to head coach Bonnie Tan, have been putting incredible work to help the team.

“Basically, we are a young team. We have to take advantage of that aspect,” Tan said after their win against TNT which tied the franchise's best stretch since the 2016 All-Filipino tournament.

“More than three-fourths of our team, nasa rookie, sophomore, junior years nila. Gusto naming i-take advantage, malabas nila na mai-showcase nila lahat ng pwede nilang gawin,” he added.

Out of the 16 players in the NorthPort roster, 13 players are below 30 years old including Arvin Tolentino, who is having a huge conference after averaging a league's second-best 24 points per contest.

With fresh legs, NorthPort is the No. 2 in fastbreak points with 23.40 per contest following the league-leading Rain or Shine (25.17).

Batang Pier's run-and-game style seemed to be perfect for the squad which lacks big men.

Tolentino also emphasized their hunger to win and contend well in the conference

“We’re young team, maraming bata sa team namin na hungry and trying to prove something sa liga. ‘Yon yung malaking contribution kung bakit kami nagco-compete ngayon,” Tolentino stressed.

Related Tags

NorthPort Batang Pier PBA Philippine Cup

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