Almacin, Mercado lift Tribu

Doroteo Almacin and Marvin Mercado took the matters in their own hands as host Tribu Sugbu escaped with a hard-earned 73-67 victory over the visiting Valencia-Bukidnon Golden Harvest in the Panasonic-NBC National Championships at the Minglanilla Sports Center.

The win, which also improved Tribu Sugbu's winning streak at home to 13, placed the Cebu team at the top of the leader board in the South division with a 3-1 win-loss card after Ozamiz Cotta fell to 5-1 with a loss to Forward Taguig on the road the other day.

Almacin hit a pivotal triple that gave Tribu Sugbu a 63-61 lead down to the final two minutes and 54 seconds in the fourth period while Mercado scored with an undergoal stab to go farther, 65-61, with the time down 2:04.

The 41-39 edge of the field goal percentage in the fourth period helped Tribu Sugbu overcame a sloppy and erratic second and third period campaign, which saw Valencia taking control of the game.

With Tribu leading by eight points, 25-17, in the first period, Valencia unleashed a 14-0 bomb to take the upperhand, 31-25, with 5:24 left in the second period. Valencia then showed the Cebuano fans a minor explosion by erecting their largest lead at eight points, 43-35, with 7:09 to go in third canto.

But Tribu Sugbu went back working on offense behind the scoring binge of Jessie Binongo, Almacin, Mercado and Bernie Ursal to close the gap, 49-50, going into the final quarter.

Binongo led Tribu Sugbu's offense with 17 points.

Almacin finished with 14 points while Ronaldo Bucao, who had an excellent first quarter, scored 13 points.

The great defensive efforts of Ursal and Mercado in stopping Valencia center Franklin Nailon proved well as they limited the latter to just seven points.

Valencia had the chance to send the game into overtime after Binongo halved his charities, 70-67, with only 24.8 seconds left in regulation but Almacin iced the ballgame by competing a three-point play all on free throws following a failed triple attempt by Rene Toring.

Dino Cabili led Valencia with 13 points while veteran guard Joselito Celiz had 11 points and Eliazar Berami had 10.

The scores:

Tribu Sugbu (73) -Binongo 17, Almacin 14, Bucao 13, Mercado 9, Ursal 7, Mangubat 4, Cainglet 3, Magsumbol 2, Luga 2, Paglinawan 2.

Valencia (67) - Cabili 13, Celiz 11, Berami 10, Toring 10, Adams 8, Nailon 7, Taligatos 5, Clavel 2, Gragasin 1. Quarterscores: 25-17; 33-339; 49-50; 73-67