Both Cabalen-RP Construction and NMBA-Aliviera Sports Bar soared in the late goings of their match ups in last Saturday\u2019s 2004 UFO-San Miguel Cup, pulling the right strings in edging their opponents at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
In the curtain raiser, the NMBA squad staved off a halftime deficit behind a huge third quarter performance by Dalewin Cortez, and held on in the final 10 minutes for a hard-earned 88-81 victory over Laguna-GEC Pawnshop.<\/p>\n
The match was dead even after the first period, 18-18, with both teams matching each others offensive bullets. Veteran Ed Palma continued to turn back time, getting off on the right foot with 8 points to lead Laguna, while a couple of bombs from downtown by Elmer Esdirelon spearheaded NMBA\u2019s guns.<\/p>\n
Laguna, however, managed to outgun their opponents in the second, and mustered just enough of a charge to go up at the end of the half, 38-34. <\/p>\n
Action finally resumed and that\u2019s when Cortez took over, going berserk for 12 points, pushing NMBA as they outscored their opponents, 30-20, for a 64-58 advantage with one period remaining.<\/p>\n
Laguna put up a solid fight in the closing minutes in hopes of regaining momentum, but they weren\u2019t able to silence the NMBA squad, which held on behind cat-quick point guard.<\/p>\n
Adonis Macoto picked up where Cortez left off and broke loose for 11 points, lifting his squad to sweet victory.<\/p>\n
Cortez led NMBA with a solid all-around performance, finishing with 19 points, 6 bards, 4 steals, 4 blocks, and 2 assists. Esdirelon added 19 points, while Macoto and Marco Garcia supported with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Joy Dayrit also posted a solid outing with 14 points and 9 boards. <\/p>\n
Palma topscored for Laguna 19 points while Randy Arconado and Leo Barrios contributed with 15 and 13 points in a losing cause.<\/p>\n
In the nightcap, the Cabalen cagers ran on all cylinders in the third quarter to punch in a double digit advantage, and staved off a late uprising by MDX-Radio Group to pull out a 108-98 victory.<\/p>\n
The game went back-and-forth in the opening quarter as both teams came out firing at will. MDX relied on its run-and-gun offense, torturing their counterpart in the open court, but Cabalen found answers in their half-court set-up plan, and knotted the score at 25 apiece on a tip in by man-mountain Ronald Delos Reyes off a missed free throw just before time expired.<\/p>\n
Momentum quickly shifted to Cabalen\u2019s corner at the start of the second stanza 16-3 run, highlighted by four triples by young gun Paul Magcalas, to take a comfortable 41-29 lead with 7:55 left in the period. <\/p>\n
MDX came back strong and retaliated with a charge of their own behind quick transition attacks. The squad would pull to within 1 point, 45-46, on a couple of charity shots, and eventually pulled even at 54-54 with 1:33 left. Cabalen, however, managed to add several more points to their corner and closed the half with a 58-56 lead.<\/p>\n
MDX then went ice cold from the field in the third, and Cabalen capitalized by outscoring MDX 26-14 for 14-point cushion. Despite a run by MDX in the final minutes, Cabalen left with the 10-point victory margin.<\/p>\n
Delos Reyes paced Cabalen with 19 points while Magcalas and Darwin Barbo poured in 15 and 14 points. Randy Arnedo also pumped in 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 steals. <\/p>\n
Butch Suplemente finished with a game-high 22 points and added 7 rebounds and 3 steals while J. Costales torched the net for 21 points to lead MDX. Martin Moreno again posted solid numbers with 16 points, a game-high 11 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals.<\/p>\n
First Game<\/b><\/p>\n
NMBA 88\u2014Esdirelon 19, Cortez 19, Macoto 16, Garcia 15, Dayrit 14, Palma 2.<\/p>\n
Laguna 81\u2014Palma 19, Arconado 15, Barrios 13, Sumaoang 11, Viola 8, Aldan 7, Sabino 6, Poquiz 2.<\/p>\n
Scoring by quarters: 18-18, 34-38, 64-58, 88-81<\/p>\n
Second Game<\/b><\/p>\n
Cabalen 108\u2014Delos Reyes 19, Magcalas 15, Barbo 14, Arnedo 13, Mendoza 12, Gatdula 11, Alipio 8, Ocampo 7, Sinca 4, Canlas 3, Salazar 2.<\/p>\n
MDX 98\u2014Suplemente 22, costales 21, Reboyun 17, Martin 16, Galulu 12, Vargas 5, Malasarte 5.<\/p>\n
Scoring by quarters: 25-25, 58-56, 84-70, 108-98.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both Cabalen-RP Construction and NMBA-Aliviera Sports Bar soared in the late goings of their match ups in last Saturday\u2019s 2004 UFO-San Miguel Cup, pulling the right strings in edging their opponents at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83181","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}