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HAPEE
Toothpaste weathered Pharex’s second-half surge to pull
off a shaky 90-84 win last night in the 2008 Philippine
Basketball League (PBL) Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup at
The Arena in
San Juan.
Challenged by the physical defense of the Medics after
the half-time break, the Complete Protectors saw their
27-point lead shrink, but they managed to hold on,
thanks to Gabe Norwood’s clutch plays that extended
their winning run to four.
“We
played good in the first 24 minutes. After that, we
stopped playing,” said Hapee head coach Louie Alas, who
slammed his players for complaining too much to the
referees in the second half.
“It’s
not the bad officiating. We were not players anymore.
We’re acting as referees because the players complained
for every call. But at least, the players showed their
character as they hold on,” he added.
Jervy
Cruz put up another solid game with 17 points and eight
rebounds, but Alas got a surprised contribution from
Dino Daa, who chipped in 16 markers, his best game in a
while in the PBL.
Larry
Rodriguez added 16 for the Complete Protectors, who are
now sporting an 8-3 mark.
Norwood had 13 points, while Mark Borboran contributed 11.
San Mig
Coffee stretched its winning run to three after stopping
the stubborn Noosa Shoes, 80-73, to climb to third spot
in the team standings with a 5-5 win-loss slate.
Neil
Raneses had another huge game for the Coffee Kings with
20 points and eight rebounds, but it was Eder Saldua’s
contribution off the bench that gave them a huge lift in
posting their longest winning run since 2006.
Saldua,
a product of University of Mindanao, scored a
career-high 18 points in just 18 minutes to make up for
the lethargic performances of Bonbon Custodio and Eric
de la Cuesta, who combined for just 15 markers.
“Everybody in the coaching staff is excited to see Eder
have his breakout game today. We know he can do more,”
said San Mig head coach Koy Banal. “I see a lot of
potential in him.”
The win
negated Noy Javier’s 30-point output as the Shoe Stars
stumbled to 4-6. They were in the thick of things in the
fourth quarter before the Coffee Kings uncorked a
telling 12-3 run that thwarted their comeback.
Trailing
by as many as 15 points, Noosa manage to come in close
with its gutsy defense and Javier’s three-point
shooting. It sliced the lead to just one, 63-64, with
8:29 left in the game.
But
Jaypee Alcaraz and Saldua joined forces in a decisive
12-3 burst to put the lead back to double digits, 76-66,
3:39 remaining.
Noosa’s
bullstrong forward Allan Evangelista drilled a
three-pointer to stop the Coffee Kings’ run, 69-76, but
Raneses, who came from a 29-point performance against
Bacchus, put the game out of hand with four straight
points.
Chris
Robles and Evangelista each had 14 points for Noosa.
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