THE M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala booked the first finals seat after pulling a pathetic 112-87 win over the listless and untested Zamboanga Latinos in the opening game 2007 MVBA Christmas Cup double-header at the Cebu Coliseum last night.
Meanwhile, the Arthro Kontra Arthritis banked on its fluid offensive attack to pull a 104-91 win over the Pagadian City Explorers in the main game last Monday night.
Doroteo Almacin rained five triples for a 28-point performance to lead the Kontra Arthritis squad to its hunt for the finals seat and to foil Peter Naron’s game high 37 points for the losing Explorers.
The battle tested Jewelers asserted its supremacy at both ends of the court as coach Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba fielded his second stringers to start the game for the Cebuano team.
Even against the second stringers, the Latinos was no match with the Jewelers erecting an early 28-17 lead before it closed to a 50-37 margin at the bend as the seven-man Zamboanga squad was clearly awed and star-struck by the talented opponents.
The Jewelers had its biggest lead of the game at 92-67 on Gerry Cavan’s triple before the Cebuanos mellowed on its defense and allowed the Zamboangueños to cut it down to 83-99 at the final 2:17.
However, a 13-4 end game blitz restored a 25-point lead capped by Alano Caputolan’s triple at the buzzer.
Without any threat coming from the Latinos, Alcoseba had the comfort of fielding five different players in each of the two quarters and in the third another set of five divided by 10-minute period.
It was only in the fourth when Alcoseba decided to shuffle his team, with his starters already resting to prepare for the championship game on Thursday. Alcoseba also did not even call a timeout in the entire game.
Guard Lou Gatumbato and center Ron Capati topped the Jewelers with 14 points each while Orlando Daroya led the losing Latinos with 26 markers.
