Monday, August 11, 2008 Beneco, Interlink draw first blood in Cup opener By Roderick Osis
Beneco's Francis Esgana scored a triple right before the buzzer to secure their first win in Bracket A of the ongoing Baguio Centennial Cup, 96-93 against a nifty BMRP basketball team.
About 39 teams in the six brackets are seeing action in the Baguio Centennial Cup pitting top amateur basketball players in Baguio and Benguet.
Six teams will square off in Bracket A of the competition while five more each in Bracket B and Bracket C and another six teams from the Boys High Alumni will also see action in the tournament with a double round robin format.
Both Brackets D and E with eight and nine teams respectively will play the single round elimination format.
Beneco looked poised for a blowout after erecting a 14-0 lead in the first quarter of the ball game.
BMRP finally caught Beneco off guard in the ensuing minutes to cut down the lead by one at the end of the opening period, 20-19.
It was a seesaw ball game during the second and third quarter of the ball game with lead changes swinging from one team to the other with BRMP leading by two at the end of the 2nd quarter, 46-44.
BMRP took control of the game after leading by eight with 4:36 remaining in the third period 55-63, but Beneco relied on their three-point shooting to close the third quarter with a four-point lead, 61-67.
Beneco controlled the rest of the final period with an eight-point lead with 5:34 remaining after several errors were committed by BMRP.
BMRP regrouped slowly to cut down the lead by 89-87 with 2:19 left in the fourth period and finally tied the ball game with, 93-93 with nine seconds left in the ball game.
BMRP could have secured their first win had they scored their four free throws after Beneco committed errors and two consecutive fouls in the remaining 13 seconds of the ball game.
Beneco then called for a timeout with six seconds remaining in the ball game.
The timeout was timely for Beneco, enabling Esgana to free himself and set up for the three-point win to seal their first victory.
In the second game, Interlink also scored their first win in Bracket E after surviving a tough TEJ team 84-76.
