Niños spill Oilers, stay on track for Golden 60

LUCENA CITY , Philippines – The M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Niños continued their winning ways with a 95-77 drubbing of the host Quezon Red Oilers at the close of the preliminary rounds of the Smart Liga Pilipinas Conference III Quezon Province leg Friday evening at the Quezon Convention Center.

The Niños of Michel Lhuillier and coach Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba swept all their three games and earned a two-point bonus for doing so to hike their tour points total to a league-best 35, winning all 11 games thus far in the conference made possible by Smart, Accel, Molten, Calcium-Cee, Gatorade, Burlington and Air 21 and sanctioned by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.

Cebu is now on course for the rare “Liga Golden 60” or a sweep of all their four legs. “It is possible but we are not thinking of that yet. We just want to build our team’s confidence and momentum for the Super Leg,” said Alcoseba.

The Red Oilers of Gov. Raffy Nantes and coach Oliver Bunyi have yet to beat the Niños since Liga Pilipinas was organized last year. The Red Oilers managed to tie the game twice at 2-2 and 4-4 and it was an all-Cebu show from thereon.

Power forward Ariel Mepana outscored the whole Quezon team in the first period as he tallied 11 points of his own against eight of Quezon. The Ninos ran away with the first period, 26-8.

It was the turn of guard Mark Ababon to wax hot in the second period, as he pumped in 10 points to tow the Ninos to a 39-12 advantage. A late run anchored on Ramsey Williams and Mark Magsumbol put the Red Oilers closer at halftime, 29-46.

By the third period, the outcome was settled as Bruce Dacia added 10 more points, followed by back-to-back triples by Stephen Padilla, another triple by Ababon and a basket by Ian Saladaga that gave the Ninos their biggest lead of the game, 75-42.

In the first game, the defending National Champion Misamis Oriental Meteors of Gov. Oscar Moreno and Coach Jun Noel kept the EKB-Apayao Rapids winless.

The Ninos and Red Oilers will dispute the leg championship while the Meteors and Rapids will tangle for Third Place.

Selected games from the Quezon Leg will be shown over Solar Sports next week from Wednesday to Saturday. Liga Pilipinas Classics are also shown every morning on Viva Prime Channel. The league’s official website is at www.ligapilipinas.net.