Autofield gets last finals seat in F-Cup ‘A’

AUTOFIELD bounced back from a slow start, but finished stronger in defeating GWE, 106-90, in their bracket A semis do or die match.

With Brent Esteban back in the line-up, Autofield sparked a solid offensive run in the second period to arrange a finals meeting against Beneco in the 26th Friendship Cup Basketball Invitational Tournament at the Easter College gym.

Esteban led registered 26 points for Autofield drawing support from Bryan Mendaros’ 20 points and avoided a possible upset by the third said GWE in the event hatched by SLU Boys High Batch ’80.

Despite a slow opening canto where Autofield trailed by four, 19-23, Esteban and Mendaros took turns in coming up with points after points on a 25–8 run to steal the lead for good at 44-33 with 3:57 remaining in the first half.

That run saw Mendaros and Esteban chipping in 10 and 11 points, respectively, in a solid second quarter offensive play.

But the contracting service provider GWE did not go down without a fight and staged a run in the third period to trim the lead to a single digit.

Alex De Guzman and Ben Gaspar lifted GWE with strings of rally to make it 73-69 affair with 1:11 remaining in the third that ended on a 77-72 edge by Autofield as De Guzman and Gaspar with 12 and six points, respectively.

A 10-5 run by Autofield in the first five minute of the payoff canto saw them erect another ten point bubble, 87-77, with 5:42 left in the ball game.

Former UC Jaguar Haynes Acdong and Mike Salinas together with Esteban then came up with clutch baskets to keep GWE at bay and enjoy a 13 point lead with two minutes remaining.

Acdong and Salinas finished 16 points each while Jong Villanueva came up with 14 markers.

De Guzman lead all scorers with 28 points but it was not enough to put them in the finals while Melmer Guib and Gaspar chipped in 14 and 13 markers apiece. (Roderick Osis)