Thursday, January 31, 2008 Bibbo, Aspac sweep semis; set up finals
THE highly-touted teams in the Reinforced Partners Cup lived up to their lofty billing and cut short their respective semifinals series Tuesday night at the Mandaue City Sports Complex.
Bibbo Hotdog-University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) and Aspac Bank-University of Cebu (UC) arranged a titular showdown after downing their respective opponents in Game 2 of the best-of-three semifinals.
Bibbo Hotdog only needed to contend with Metro Gaisano-Cebu Institute of Technology in the first two quarters before easing through the final half to win, 93-72. Aspac Bank-UC, on the other hand, had to ward off the headstrong Unilab/Alaxan-Don Bosco College, 107-106 in the first game.
Against DBC, UC jumped to an early lead, 9-0, as it managed to hold Don Bosco’s offensive in the first three minutes of the game.
Aspac Bank had a chance to break the game wide open and could have ended the game emphatically, but the determined DBC squad foiled the runaway win, losing by just a point.
Aspac was able to pad its lead to as much as 23, 75-52, in the third period, but Unilab/Alaxan initiated a comeback, taking cue from back-to-back triples from Celso Coligado.
Rally
This seemed to have woken the Unilab/Alaxan as it opened a wild rally which saw Aspac-UC’s 23-point lead shrinking to just two, 105-103, in the final nine seconds of the game.
UC’s import Miguelito Ducay sank in the assurance two charities for a four-point lead in the final ticks but this did not stop the Unilab/Alaxan as Lemuel Baring fired a triple to slice the lead further to a hairline, 106-107, before the final buzzer sealing the outcome.
Junmar Fajardo, UC’s 6-foot-7 beanpole, improved last week’s passable performance as he once more breached his regular 30-point mark, scoring 32 last Tuesday.
In the second game, Metro Gaisano could only put up a decent fight in the first two periods and succumbed to the pressure to eventually give the Bibbo-USJR an easy time.
Lyndon Gudez led the way for Bibbo-USJR with 17 points. CIT’s imports, former pro players Jerry Jaca scored 30 points for the team, while Gilbert Demape added 15.
Bibbo-USJR and Aspac-UC will battle it out for the title when the best-of-three championship series fires off this Sunday at the Cebu Coliseum.
