De Guzman lifts Patriots past Marlins

LIPA — Jonathan de Guzman sparkled as the Nueva Ecija Patriots clobbered a Bong Alvarez-less Socsargen side, 97-75, yesterday in the Metropolitan Basketball Association First Phase at the Sentrum De La Salle here.

In a game featuring two of the three squads that have already been eliminated from the quarterfinal round, De Guzman waxed hot with a career-high 25 points, highlighted by four triples, as the Patriots improved to 3-9.

De Guzman, who pumped in 22 points in the first half where Nueva Ecija made its breakaway, also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out three assists and had three steals.

Socsargen, which sorely missed the leadership and scoring exploits of the injured Alvarez, absorbed its 11th loss in 13 games.

With de Guzman stringing up 14 straight points on 6-of-6 shooting and the Marlins obviously lacking a leader, the Patriots tore the game apart with a 20-6 opening run.

The game was practically over by the second quarter as the Patriots, after successfully breaking the pressing defense thrown at them by the Marlins, widened the gap to 27 (53-26).

The Patriots enjoyed their biggest lead at 90-62 on a "Blitz-3" by De Guzman with only 4:19 left in the final canto.

Alvarez was sidelined by a foot injury he suffered during Socsargen’s 86-103 loss to LBC Batangas last Wednesday. Another key man, Aldrich Reyes, was sick, further reducing the firepower of the Marlins.

De Guzman got scoring support from Francis Aquino (16), Billy Bansil (15), and Dave Bautista (10).

Four Socsargen players – Chris Bade (13), rookies Bong Salvador and Egay Echavez (12) and Alvin Teng – finished in double figures but most of those points came when the Patriots already had the game on their hands.