Jared Bahay, Reinhard Jumamoy set for Fearless Four face off

The two best high school guards in the country are set for a duel, as Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu and NU Nazareth School won their respective matches to set up one of the two semifinal matches at the 2023 SMART NBTC National Finals presented by SM.

Backed by Landmasters, the CESAFI champions torched Mapua-Malayan from beyond the arc on their way to a 90-75 victory, as they creep closer for a chance to claim their third title in the tournament.

Jared Bahay nailed eight triples to finish with 31 points, as the Magis Eagles finished with 14/26 shooting from beyond the arc. He shared afterwards, "I'm just thankful. I just asked for guidance from Him to be able to play this game. It's sweet to help our team return to the Fearless Four."

Michael Asoro added twenty points on five triples, with Raffy Celis contributing a double-double with seventeen points and ten rebounds.

The defending champions are not far behind, as they blew out Pampanga Delta, 94-52, with Reinhard Jumamoy falling a steal short of a quadruple-doubl with 27 points, ten rebounds, twelve assists, and nine steals.

The NBTC All-Star shared post-match, "I just trusted my teammates. We did not expect this big win, but we just stuck to our game plan and we were able to stop Rhyle [Melencio]."

The other semifinal will have Fil-Nation Select going up against the University of Santo Tomas.

The former ended the Cinderella run of Batang Tiaong with a 91-79 beatdown, with Jason Mandaquit erupting for 31 points. Dasean Brodie added seventeen markers and six rebounds. Gilas Youth standout Caelum Harris also added twelve and six.

Vhoris Marasigan led the Quezon LQT champions with 31 points.

The latter squeaked past Toronto, 66-65, as Charles Bucsit made two out of three free throws with 0.5 seconds left after he was fouled by Kobe Tablate. He would finish with sixteen points in the win.

The Canadian side had been set to take that spot after a Michael Ramos triple with 5.8 seconds remaining before the foul call that set up the ending for the Tiger Cubs.

Arjay Pantaleon and James Jumao-as each added twelve points.

The Division 1 semifinals will start with Fil-Nation Select and UST at 5pm, followed by SHS-AdC against NUNS at 630pm. All games scheduled that day will be streamed online through the Facebook pages of the NBTC, SMART Sports, and Puso Pilipinas.

The NBTC National Finals isbacked by Smart, SM, Strong Realty and Development Corp., Under Armour, and Molten. It is also supported by Tecno, Regent, Rebisco, Jollibee, San Miguel Corp., Maynilad, Rebel Sports Pilipinas, MNL Kingpin, Gatorade, Swish App, Victory Liner, Jasper Jean, Darlington, Exped, Coach E Basketball School, Lighthouse Events, and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.