Saturday, February 16, 2008 ACT scores emphatic win against SCSIT
Games on Sunday:
(Cebu Coliseum)
4 p.m. - UV vs. SCSIT
5:30 p.m. - USC vs. BIT-IC
ELMER Aparice and Dondon Nuñez scored 26 and 25 points respectively to lead the Asian College of Technology Cyber Knights to its fifth win in as many games following a methodical 117-87 victory over the Salazar College of Science and Institute of Technology Skyblazers in the resumption of the 2008 VAAA Basketball tournament held at the Cebu Coliseum last night.
With Aparice and Nuñez going hot early, ACT was quick to build a double-digit lead en route to a 31-14 score after the first quarter.
“They played our game very well and all we can do was to try to minimize the effect of their red-hot game,” said SCSIT coach Giovanni Romarate after the game.
From a 17-point lead, ACT’s lead ballooned to 61-39 at the half and to 92-66 entering the final quarter.
In the presence of its school owner Doroteo Salazar, the Skyblazers were able to trim ACT’s lead down to 81-101 with an open court game and by driving strong to the hoops with still 5:31 to play.
But that was the best they could muster as the next plays were all Cyber Tigers with Aparice and Nuñez and Michael Cadiz leading the charge.
The Blazers will be up against tournament heavyweights University of the Visayas Green Lancers this Sunday.
“If only we had a good ball handler we could have put up a good fight but it will be all for naught at this point. Our next games will be mountains to climb,” Romarate said.
As for ACT head coach Lawrence “Tata” Merced, who is also facing UV soon – they will need to compensate for their height difference against the giant Green Lancers.
“We need more speed and hustle. We can’t take UV man for man all we need to do is to play pressure defense. We have to give them pressure because we know they’re (UV) not very good when the opponent plays pressure game,” Merced said.
ACT will play UV on Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the Cebu Coliseum. RCM
