Hapee, Harbour nail outright semis slots

Hapee Toothpaste and Harbour Centre gained outright semifinal berths in the PBL V-Go Extreme Energy Drink Cup as they trounced their respective rivals in varying fashions at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum yesterday.

The Complete Protectors held off the stubborn Toyota Balintawak Roadkings, 79-75, in the second game to keep their unblemished slate and assure themselves of the top spot in the elims with a 6-0 mark.

Earlier, the Batang Pier also advanced to the semis outright by turning back Mail and More, 74-66.

Seeking a record fourth straight championship, Harbour Centre finished the elims with a 6-1 record.

Reed Juntilla came away with a team-high 15-point effort for Hapee, which goes for a seven-game sweep of the elims against Pharex tomorrow.

The 6-foot-1 Juntilla, who scored all but two of his output in the fourth, capped his final quarter binge with a tough drive that all but quashed Toyota Balintawak’s hopes, 73-69.

Francis Mercado iced the win with a putback following a bungled play by Toyota for a 75-69 Hapee lead, barely 17 seconds left in the contest.

With Fil-Am Solomon Mercado on the firing end, the Batang Pier outscored the Comets, 25-15, at resumption of the contest, turning a shaky 33-32 advantage into an 11-point lead, 58-47, heading into the fourth quarter.

The 6-foot Mercado, easily one of the prized finds from the Fil-Am ranks, scattered eight points in a fiery 15-4 binge as the Batang Pier recovered from a sputtering start and raced to their first sizable lead at 54-42, with 2:52 left in the third.

Mercado topscored with a game-high 16 point output.

 “We did not play as a team in the first half that’s why we trailed most of the time. But I reminded them at halftime and so it resulted to another win,” saidHarbour coach Jorge Gallent. “We have to be consisted always, we can’t play like this most of the time.”

The Batang Pier finished the elims at 6-1, while the Comets fell to 3-4.

Harbour Centre, however, needs to win one of its two games in the next phase to advance outright in the semis.

Gallent also commended Dylan Ababao for the win, saying:

“He’s adjusting very fast to the kind of game in the PBL. Matapang ang bata.”

The University of Santo Tomas swingman struck hard in the fourth where he scattered nine of his 12 points. He highlighted his impressive performance by making 3-of-5 from the 3-point zone.

Mail & More, behind Marcy Arellano, closed at 51-58 but back-to-back triples by the 6-foot-3 Ababou fuelled another Harbour run for a 64-51 lead.