Fiercer Mandaue City closes elimination round with flurries

By Rommel C. Manlosa

MANDAUE City proved to be fiercer, bolder and braver when its backs were against the wall as they dominated Consolacion Sarok Weavers for a 76-65 win to officially close the elimination round of the Cebu Governor’s Cup 2019 Inter-Cities/Municipalities Basketball Tournament held at the Consolacion Sports Complex last night.

The win secured Mandaue City a ticket to the quarterfinal round, representing the 6^th District for topping the FIBA tie breaker Olympic Quotient System, despite starting the tournament flat. Mandaue City, Consolacion and Cordova finished the elimination phase with an identical 2-2 win-loss record.

Mandaue City, which started the competition at 0-2 record, got the highest quotient at 1.120, Consolacion had 0.959 to tab the other ticket to the quarterfinal round while Cordova settled at the bottom with 0.935. Mandaue City’s 104-75 victory over Cordova last March 22 played a major role in the computation for the 6^th District qualifiers.

 Tonight, Mandaue City will host the 6^th District championship game against Consolacion tonight at the Mandaue City Sport and Cultural Complex, where the P100, 000 cash prize is at stake.

Playing a must-win game, Mandaue City arrived two hours before the game for a pre-game warm-up and court familiarization, started on a high note, allowing only two deadlocks in the opening period, before they got the upper hand for good.

With Mandaue City dominating the contest, the Sarok Weavers managed only to get close by one point, 18-19 early in the second period before the visitors dropped a series of spurts on its way to build its biggest lead of the game at 51-33 at the 3:22 mark of the third period.

Consolacion retaliated with a 9-2 blitz to trim down the gap at 11, 42-53, two minutes and 20 seconds later but Mandaue City scored four more points to close of the third quarter.

Despite the efforts and egging of a largely partisan crowd, Consolacion failed to make a difference as the hard-working visitors continued to give answers to every points delivered by the Sarok Weavers.

However, despite the outstanding performance of the Mandaue City Ballers, coach Gary Cortes felt his team has more to give. He is not happy particularly on the performance of center Kenneth Brillo, who fouled out of the game still with 4:28 left in the game.

“I am not happy with Brillo’s performance (tonight). He came unprepared (for this game). He was sleeping on the job. He was not prepared to defend, that’s why he fouled out of the game because he always reacted late, rather than overplaying the middle and stop the play from developing” Cortes told iNews.Ph.

Although Brillo’s disqualification brought a moment of relief to the Sarok Weavers, Mandaue City did not give up, instead, the bench stepped particularly  Dwight Kent Dabon,  who made his filled the slack left by Brillo. Mandaue also saw a breakout game of Jhun Art Marco who proved to be reliable in both offense and defense. And most credits went to Archie Buscay who, despite his diminutive frame, battled hard for rebounds against the taller and bigger Consolacion players.

Marco top-scored for Mandaue City as he drilled 14 points, Brillo finished with 13 before fouling out, Gab Cometa scored eight of his 12 points in the fourth and Buscay and Paul Sungahid contributed 11 points each while John Paulo Dalumpines was the only player to score double-digit with 11 points for the Alelu Flores mentored Consolacion Sarok Weavers.

However, one of Mandaue’s scorers Lemuel Jake Gonzaga might not be suiting up for at least two games after injuring his ankle in the second quarter. Luckily, Sungahid stepped up in his place.

Boxscores:

Mandaue City (76) – Marco 14, Brillo 13, Cometa 12, Buscay 11, Sungahid 11, Dabon 6, Gonzaga 2, Isok 2, Pitogo 2. Consolacion (65) – Dalumpines 11, Padayogdog 8, Pepito 8, Robles 7, Embrado 6,  Osabel 6, Manatad 5, Bathan 2, M. Maglasang 2, Dayday 2, JM Maglasang 1. Quarterscores: 17-11; 37-29; 57-43; 76-65.

 

Photos by: Christian Maningo

 

 

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