Friday, July 04, 2008 Pagadian upsets Cebu Niños in Liga Pilipinas
PAGADIAN City - The Cebuanos in the Pagadian Explorers lineup played villain to the cause of the M. Lhuillier-Cebu Niños as the host team scored a stirring upset over the highly favored visitors, 57-55, in the opening day of the Pagadian leg of the 2008 Liga Pilipinas.
Former University of the Visayas Baby Lancer Robert Labagala played hero as he drilled the winning basket with three-tenths of a second left to break a 55-all deadlock to gave the Explorers the win.
Talisay City born Jan Villaver also provided support as he scored the game-tying jumper at the 4:26 of the fourth. Villaver, who once saw action with the SCSIT Skyblazers and is the second leading scorer for the Explorers, finished with eight points.
Cebu, however, did not give up as coach Yayoy Alcoseba mapped out the last play to forge an overtime. However, Jayford Rodriguez’s alley-hoop basket was nullified after he released the leather a bit late to beat the buzzer.
The defeat came following an exhausting 15-hour trip from Cebu to Pagadian.
The Niños were clearly groping for form as evident of their sub-par performance—sinking only 18-of-60 attempts from the field while giving up 17 turnovers. In the final quarter, the Niños did not score a point in the last 7:26 of the game.
While Marlon Basco and Stephen Padilla had their usual numbers Bruce Dacia and Rodriguez failed to display their valuable performance.
Dacia, the Ilocos Sur leg Best Player, came into the game with an average 18.0 and Rodriguez normed 11.2, but the two explosive duo only scored two points each.
In contrast, Misamis Oriental leg Best Player Mark Yee, displayed another monster game as he nailed 12 points on top of 20 rebounds, while Labagala topped all scorers with 18. (RCM)
