The road back to the finals for the STI College Balagtas basketball team is a long one, unfortunately they need to take that route to be able to sharpen their skills for them to get a crack at the title and be crowned champions of the STI Basketball showdown. Today, they took the first step by coming from behind once again to beat the STI College Global City team 91-84 as they served notice to the two other remaining teams that they too can come back.
Van Mamangon blocks the shot
STI College Global City started the first quarter smoking as Wynald Sultan led 7 players who scored in the first quarter points to give the home team a 28-22 lead. Sultan would score 8 points while Andrew Oyama and John Magsalos added 5 and 4 points apiece. Andrew Oyama started the second quarter with a basket while the Balagtas cagers groped for form. It was evident in the eyes of the Bulacan based cagers that they were quite tentative as they missed point blank field goals all day long. On the other hand, Magsalos presided over a 16 to 4 run that completely shattered the hearts of the Balagtas team as they can only watch in dismay as they were down by seventeen points, 50 – 33. STI College Balagtas would end the quarter with a 7 – 0 run capped by the buzzer beater of Olympian Cedric Ablaza to narrow the gap 40 – 50.
In the third quarter, Team Balagtas tightened on defense as they opened the quarter with a 14 -9 tear courtesy of Cedric Ablaza seven points. Ablaza was a men among boys as he pulled down six rebounds and also had two steals to add to the woes of the Global City squad. After averaging 25 points in the first two quarters, Team Balagtas dropped the gun on Team Global City as they were limited to 16 third quarter points. On the other hand, Adrian Querubin and Albert Pepito teamed up with Ablaza to get them within striking distance 64 - 66 when the quarter ended. This time it was the Global City offense which was not in sync.
Come the fourth quarter, the Bulacan sweetened Team in Yellow improved on their lead as they opened up the quarter with an 8 -2 run. This time it was second string point guard Aaron Cruz who was at the firing end for Team Balagtas as he scored 11 points in the 4th quarter with most of those coming off fastbreaks in the first few minutes of the quarter. Team Balagtas threatened to break the game wide open as it took a 76-68 lead on a Pepito drive. Team Global City through center Herminio Avila tried to crawl back as he scored 9 fourth quarter points with six of them coming from foul counted plays. Unfortunately, Team Balagtas through Cruz and ABlaza teamed up for a fiery wind up by the Bulakeños as they took an insurmountable 89 – 81 lead with less than 30 seconds left in the ball game. Ablaza scored 14 second half points to lead the scoring with 20 markers. Avila on the other hand led Global City with 24 points. Next stop – it will be Bulacan against Laguna in the resumption of the STI Basketball Showdown.
BALAGTAS (91)
Ablaza 20, Pascual 13, Querubin 12, Cruz 11, A. dela Cruz 11, Pepito 10, Yee 9, Baliclic 5, Somontina 0, Macapagal 0, Villadoz 0, Crisostomo 0,
GLOBAL CITY (84)
Avila 24 , Sultan 16, Oyama 12, Magsalos 12, Sarmiento 6, Ramirez 4, de Belen 3, Mamangon 3, Saltiga 2, Cruz 2, Tabug 0, Elumba 0
Quarterscores 22-28, 40-50, 64-66, 91-84
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