Monday, June 16, 2008 Alvin takes solo as Axial beats Sucden
ALVIN Auto Parts has welcomed the backcourt presence of Rommel Hofileña to beat Team 'S', 74-59, and took solo lead in the Basketball Unified Group-Sharp Cup quadrangular meet at Lopue's South Square last Friday.
Skipper Biboy Java got hot with 15 points, two shy of the total 17 points of Team 'S' in the fourth quarter, to lead all scorers with 27 as Randy Cawaling added 17 and Armando Soberano, 12.
Zaldy Navarra hit 23 and Johann Belandres contributed 15 for Bing Soyao's charges, who were firing bricks in a bruising encounter. It was a big letdown after a bright opener dumping Sucden Philippines, 93-72, a week ago.
Sucden likewise succumbed for the second time as Axial Engineering hammered a convincing 95-78 triumph behind Edgar Espares' 22 points.
Raymundo Sapa Jr. shared 19, Henry Doble 16, Abet Jarder 13 and Edwin Gonzaga 11 as the backboards were taken cared of by Rene Antones and Henrico Juarez.
The Sugar Traders relied on Vic Dueñas who hit 21 markers, Arman Pabon 18 and Nene Lapore 16.
Axial surged to a 23-11 lead in the first canto but Sucden got back with a 21-12 spurts of its own in the second to trail 32-35.
Axial, however, hacked out a 27-17 and 33-29 advantage in the final half to the Team 'S' at 1-1 win-loss card behind Alvin, which will be gunning for its third straight win on Friday against winless Sucden.
The Partsmen, who took the half, 31-20, found themselves trailing 47-51 but went to its big men and finished off with a 28-17 windup to slam the door for Team 'S'.
