Greenhills, Panagdait take game 1 at J Centre finals

CEBU, Philippines - Greenhills Subdivision and Panagdait claimed the first game in the best-of-three championship series in the teens 19-under and adult-open categories of HoopStars’ Lord of the Rings - Battle of the Villages at J Centre Mall last Friday night.

Greenhills took advantage of a coach-less St. Paul College (SPC) as the team from Casuntingan, Mandaue City routed the team representing Bakilid, 84-53, in the 19-under teens category of the tournament presented by Jonie’s Flavored Chicken.

JC Aloro sparked the surge for Greenhills, scoring 8 of his 20 points in the first quarter, but the Bakilid squad managed to respond with Robert John Fuentes matching 7 marks at the start.

But Aloro played with Mark Kong and John Albert Montesclaros like rampaging bulls by the third quarter scoring 7 points each as their teammates added 8 in drowing Bakilid-SPC that managed to score only 4 points.

Bakilid-SPC tried to regain in the final canto that Alvin Joshua Olympia sparked with a trey as Roberto Jayme picked up scoring 7 of his 10 points, but they just could not contain Greenhills as Kevin Iboña and RJ Panal responded with their treys.

In the main adult-open game, Panagdait trailed Summerville by six to 10 points throughout the game but the Slashers prevailed in the dying seconds as the Drillers suddenly lost their spirit that frustrated playing coach Brian Gabasa, ending game one at 79-75.

Panagdait evened the game with Summerville at 72-all shortly before the last two minutes after the Drillers’ court general Jopt Cleopas fouled out with 3 minutes left in the game of the series backed by Dunkin’ Donuts.

As Summerville’s topscoring forward Franco Cipriano exited with 33 seconds left, the Slashers overtook the game as their team captain and playing coach Jan Ponz Geraga hit a trey and overtook the game at 76-75.

Two fouls by Summerville followed in the breathtaking moments that graduated Gabasa with 9 seconds left. But Geraga missed the charities.

In the ensuing rebound, a Driller who lost fire failed to grab the ball near him and bothered not to stop Jerome Balansag to hit a trey that made the Summerville coach cry out loud in frustration.

The scores

First game

Panagdait (79) – Geraga 25, Balansag J 16, Cortes 15, Camcaylan 7, Tecson 6, Dinolan 5, Laurente 4, Balansag C 2

Summerville (75) – Tidoy 18, Cipriano 14, Cleopas 12, Abadia 10, Virtucio 10, Villarta 6, Gabasa 4

Quarterscores: 13-19; 15-16; 24-22; 27-17

Second game

Greenhills (84) – Aloro 20, Kong 18, Montesclaros 15, Iboña 13, Ceniza 11, Panal 4, Espina 3

Bakilid-SPC (72) – Jayme 10, Fuentes 11, Suico 8, Iglesia 4, Magale 4, Olympia 3, Abrigo 2, Batiancila 2, Bayate 2, Gomez 2

Quarterscores 21-19; 15-14; 29-4; 19-16 (FREEMAN)