8 vie for UPAC ultimate

Eight teams will begin their quest to be crowned the best tertiary institution basketball team in the country when the quarter-final stage of the Rexona Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges Basketball Championship tips-off today at the Accra Polytechnic basketball court.

The contest started last month with 28 tertiary institutions battling it out for a spot in the finals in the qualifiers held in seven zones across nine regions of the country.

The draw for the quarter-finals stage, which was held last Sunday in the studios of TV3 threw up some interesting pairings as the two-time winners and defending champions Accra Polytechnic were paired with debutants University of Development Studies-Tamale, the reigning Ghana Universities Sports Association (GUSA) Basketball champions, University of Ghana (UG) and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Group A.

In Group B, last year’s finalists Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) will face off University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), and Takoradi Polytechnic meet Marshalls University College who only made it this far as the best second placed team.

In all, four games will be honoured on the opening day with Takoradi Poly battling Marshalls in the opener at 10.00a.m., UENR engaging KNUST at 12p.m., GIMPA versus KNUST at 2p.m. and UDS playing Accra Poly at 4p.m.

The contest will then move to the University of Ghana Basketball Court tomorrow where the top two teams in each of the groups after the round robin will progress to the semi-finals and later finals on Saturday at the same venue.