Monday, March 26, 2007 Spiders blacken out Green's perfect card By Lynde Salgados
IT TOOK the defending champions, Black Spiders to tarnish the immaculate record of Green Lancers. And it took Black to put up a gallant stance in the final minute to spoil Green's sweep bid of the first round of Club 92 Inter-Color basketball tourney here at Macasandig covered court.
Trailing by six points with only 1 minute and 10 seconds left in the fourth and final quarter, the Spiders regrouped then dropped a bomb that caught the 6-0 Lancers off-guard en route to posting a come-from-behind 94-89 win.
"They're closely heading to a sweeping finish, though nasorpresa lang
gyod sila sa atong last hurrah nga trapping defense," the Spiders said in unison.
Playing without reigning MVP GB Tagarda, who's still in Manila and is serving and one-game suspension for brazenly going against the officiating, the Spiders got the most points from the Yparraguirre siblings (Ryan and Robbie) every time the Buchok Biongcog-led Lancers tried to pad the lead for good.
Buchok's more illustrious brother, Boning Biongcog was not able to play due to injury. Productive efforts by Jim Vincent Lim and Kane Acedera from beyond the 3-point arc cut like a dagger to Black's vulnerable defense. But the Spiders woke up in time to eventually occupy the second place behind Green at the end of the first round matches.
The Red Dragons, saved by Nick Gonzaga's clutch basket in the endgame stretch to defeat the Celbon Deña-less Orange, 70-67 also made it to the top-4 circle dangling a twice-to-beat advantage in the playoff round next week.
"Like the other teams, naa gihapon miy mga minor problems sa sulod. Pero nag-bonding na mi nilang Garang (Roderick Pacturan) ug mga kauban in anticipation of the tough battle ahead in the playoff," Red center Oliver Velasco told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in the company of hard-working off-guard Jean Marc Natividad.
