Definitely, there must be a team out there who can stop the rampage of the M. Lhuillier-Cebu Niños, but last night they are just too good, too quick and too smart for the Lipa/Batangas Barakos following a lopsided 99-80 Game 1 victory to take the series opener 1-0 for the 2008 Smart-Liga Pilipinas Playoffs best-of-fiver semifinal series at the Cebu Coliseum.
The top seed showed the Barakos why they swept all its tour elimination championship assignments with their excellent ball rotation and no-nonsense defense from start to finish.
“I am just glad that the boys played the way I expected them to play. As you can see, Lipa holds an experience advantage over us and they are taller and bigger. But we wanted to show to the Cebuanos that despite our size handicap we can still win big by playing smart defense and unselfish offense,” Cebu coach Yayoy Alcoseba told Sun.Star-Cebu after the game.
Advantage
Using its familiarity of the venue, the Niños pounded the Barakos at the start—erecting a 30-21 lead at the end of the first quarter before it ballooned to a 53-42 lead at the halftime.
With the defense of Cebu holding down the Barakos, the next 20 minutes was a very trying experience for the visiting squad as their every basket were answered with at least four points by the Cebuanos.
Behind Cebuano ex-PBA player Braulio Lim, Lipa was able to cut a 79-60 lead to a 66-79 deficit early in the fourth but that was the closest the Barakos could muster as the Niños dropped another barrage of baskets that put them to a 95-72 lead before Lipa scored its final eight points in the last 2:51 of the game.
Gameplan
Today, Cebu will shoot for a 2-0 lead before the series shifts to Lipa on Sept. 7 and 8 for the Games 3 and 4.
Starting forward Marlon Basco was chosen as the best player of the game after scoring 17 points on top of 14 rebounds, two assists and three blocks in 27 minutes of action inside the court. Stephen Padilla added 15 and Jayford Rodriguez finished with 12.
