![\"Bayani\/LBT's](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/imgupload\/issx9999ns120239.jpg\")
\u00a0 Defending champion MDX\/Armatech moved a win away from earning a return trip to the finals, while Bayani\/LBT Appraisal also marched into the semis round of the 2012 UFO Masters Budweiser Cup after downing separates foes last Thursday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
MDX\/Armatech defeated Laguna\/Twinkle\/Erika’s, 105-76, while Bayani\/LBT cruised past VisMinda\/Civic Boys, 103-91. MDX’s semis foe on July 12 will be the winner of the knockout match between Batangas\/Fong’s Bakery and MAFEA\/CMI (July 8), while Bayani will take on the victor of the Laguna-Civic Boys tiff.<\/p>\n
VisMinda\/Civic Boys threatened the defending champion, climbing back from a 34-50 deficit in the third period and moving within a deuce, 56-58. MDX almost lost the big lead after playing complacent at the start of the second half and was scoreless for more than four minutes after making a free throw in the opening minute of the third period. Ed Pangelinan and company capitalized on an over-confident MDX crew to close the gap with less than four minutes left in the third.<\/p>\n
However, the backcourt trio of Ferdie Tobias, Martin Moreno, and James Abuy returned control of the game back to MDX, as they teamed up in a 13-4 windup with Abuy hitting a buzzer-beating trey to up the lead to twin digits anew at the end of the third, 71-60.<\/p>\n
In the fourth quarter, MDX completely took over behind the 3-point shooting of Abuy and Moreno, while VisMinda gassed out after a good rally in the third canto.<\/p>\n
Abuy finished with 23 points, while Tobias and Moreno chipped in 19 and 18, respectively.<\/p>\n
In the second game, Bayani\/LBT also withstood a Laguna rally in the second quarter en route to a 12-point win.<\/p>\n
Bayani had a jackrabbit start, leading by 12 after the first, 32-20. It went ahead by as much as 16 in the opening canto before VisMinda picked up its scoring in the closing minutes of the first period.<\/p>\n
VisMinda continued to recover and moved within two, 33-35, after limiting Bayani to three points in the first five minutes of the second canto, while scoring 13. Norman Olfindo anchored VisMinda’s good start in the second period, making 6 points, while Ronnie De Belen added 5, and Bobby Geli chipped in 2.<\/p>\n
Sensing trouble, Bayani went back to business in the final half of the second period with Ed Cosino capitalizing on his advantage at the paint and scoring 6 straight points, while his three other teammates also began attacking the basket to widen the gap anew at the break, 57-42.<\/p>\n
That was it for VisMinda, as it just traded baskets with Bayani in the second half and the former trimmed the deficit to a decent number after the latter let go of its guard in the final two minutes of the match.<\/p>\n
First Game <\/strong><\/p>\n MDX\/Armatech 105 – Abuy 23, Tobias 19, Moreno 18, Berline 14, Montano 8, Poquiz 7, Gabaldon 5, Jinang 4, Canedo 4, Malasarte 3.<\/p>\n Laguna\/Twinkle\/Erika’s 76 – Park 16, Ebuen 13, Pablo 10, Pangilinan 10, Lansang 6, Manipon 4, Villegas 4, Lopez 3, Salazar 2, Guerrero 2.<\/p>\n Second Game<\/strong><\/p>\n Bayani\/LBT Appraisal 103 – Ocampo 27, Diaz 22, Cosino 18, Pineda 17, Tiples 10, De La Torre 5, Santos 2, Sahagun 2.<\/p>\n VisMinda\/Civic Boys 91 – Geli 32, Faustino 18, Sevilla 12, Olfindo 12, Mangubat 6, De Belen 5, Miguel 4, Santos 2.<\/p>\n Scoring by quarters: 32-20, 57-42, 83-58, 103-91.<\/p>\n By Roselyn Monroyo \u00a0 Defending champion MDX\/Armatech moved a win away from earning a return trip to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[145,56,426],"class_list":["post-23509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-ada-gymnasium","tag-business-3","tag-laguna-twinkle-erika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"