Tribu Sugbu sweeps Valencia Sets up rematch with Ozamiz Cotta in NBC Southern Conference finals

The defending champion Skygo/Sirlitz Electronics-backed Tribu Sugbu completed a two-game sweep over Valencia Golden Harvest following a 72-67 victory in Game 2 of their best-of-three semifinal series to advance into the finals of the Panasonic-NBC National Championship on Friday night at the Minglanilla Sports Center.

Thus, Tribu Sugbu arranged a rematch of last year's Southern Conference finals with Ozamiz Cotta.

This time though, Ozamiz owns the homecourt edge over Tribu Sugbu for emerging as the elimination round topnotcher with a 10-3 win-loss record. Tribu Sugbu winds up at second with an 8-5 slate.

Tribu Sugbu was smoothly marching into victory with a 10-point lead, 64-54, at the final 7:30 mark of the game, but all of a sudden, right after skipper Alex Cainglet was whistled for a technical foul for dissenting the referee's call, Valencia made a courageous 10-0 run to tie the score at 64-all on Rocky Clavel's basket with 3:11 left.

After a timeout called by Tribu Sugbu coach Al Solis, Marvin Mercado got a roaring cheers of approval when he perfectly executed a monster slam and then converted a beautiful turnaround jumper to hand Tribu Sugbu back the lead, 68-64, with only 1:50 remaining in the game.

Valencia threatened anew at, 67-68, on a basket by Jester Adams with only 24 seconds left in the game, but that was its last hurrah as Cainglet and Doroteo Almacin sank the insurance free throws in the closing seconds to duplicate Tribu Sugbu's five-point triumph in Game 1.

Mercado topped Tribu Sugbu with 15 points highlighted by a pair of slam dunks that drew a standing ovation from the gallery.

Mercado was backed up by Bernie Ursal and Cainglet, who chipped in 11 and 10 markers, respectively.

The others who stepped up when Tribu Sugbu needed them most were Ronaldo Bucao, who fired a momentum-building triple, and Russ Neil Paglinawan, who buried a buzzer-beating basket, as well as Rex Mangubat, Boyet Guerrero and Chris Ferraren for his stifling defense.

Game 1 of the South finals will be played in Minglanilla on October 11, while the next two games shift to the Gov. Angel Medina Memorial Gym in Ozamiz City.

Tribu Sugbu (72) - Mercado 15, Ursal 11, Cainglet 10, Mangubat 8, Guerrero 7, Bucao 6, Pening 5, Ferraren 4, Almacin 4, Paglinawan 2

Valencia (67) - Cruz 20, Berami 11, Adams 10, Clavel 7, Celiz 5, Nailon 5, Cabili 3, Gragasin 3, Toring 2, Bayron 2 Quarterscores: 18-17; 37-36; 55-50; 72-67