Thursday, September 11, 2008 Niños await winner of MisOr-Taguig tiff
STALLED for a day, but not for long.
M. Lhuillier-Cebu Niños finally became the first-ever team to reach the summit of the Liga Pilipinas, besting the hard-fighting Lipa/Batangas Barakos, 96-89 to close out their best-of-five semifinal series, 3-1 Monday night at the jampacked Lipa Convention Center in Lipa City, Batangas.
The Cebuanos now await in the finals the winner between Misamis Oriental Meteors and Taguig Batang Global, going up for a pivotal Game 4 tonight at the Xavier University gym in Cagayan de Oro.
Cebu used its vast experience to beat the equally tough Barakos in the Smart Liga Pilipinas Playoffs.
The Niños will host first two finals games on Monday and Tuesday against the survivor of the remaining semifinal showdown.
Motivation
The Niños needed a little pep talk from its head coach Raul "Yayoy" Alcoseba to pull the win through.
"I just challenged them. I told them that if we wanted to be a champion, we need to make a stand here (in Lipa). It (Games 3) was the first time that Stephen (Padilla) scored nothing and Bruce (Dacia) only had two points. So I challenged them not just as a team, but as an individual player," Alcoseba told Sun.Star.
The Niños zeroed in on limiting Jeffrey Sanders and Bon Bon Custodio and clipping the game of Al Vergara who posted much a problem in defense.
"We played man-zone defense on Custodio. And we attacked the defense of Vergara while we limited Sanders. In Game 3, it's like the players (Ni¤os) were stunned by what Lipa displayed and we did not underestimate them this time," added Alcoseba.
Again, the Cebuanos dominated the board, out-rebounding Lipa, 52-27, and scored, 24-11, in second chance baskets and it was the 28-of-56 shooting of the Niños from the 2-point range that gave them the victory.
However, it was the triple of Marlon Basco in the final two minutes of the game that took away the fight of the Barakos.
Basco added two free throws and Mark Ababon scored four points to secure the Niños win.
Recognition
Dacia was named best player of the game scoring 18 points, on top of four rebounds, four assists and two steals. Five other Niños finished in double digit, Mark Ababon scored 17, Ron Capati made up for low output in the first three games of the series with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Basco had 11 points and 11 rebounds and Padilla and Richard Ian Saladaga scored 10 points each.
"Lipa is a worthy opponent, they were such a sport. I admired them. As well as their crowd, they were so involved and so animated. For now, we will go back to our conditioning since we still have at least six days before Game 1," Alcoseba stressed.
Pro-bound Custodio topped Lipa scorers with 21 points, Vergara added 14 whie Sanders, Don Camaso and Ismael Junio scored 12 points each.
