Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Cebu takes Game One By Rommel C. Manlosa Sun.Star Staff Reporter
RICHARD Ian Saladaga showed no fear as he came off the bench scoring 19 points on top of four rebounds and one assist to lead the M. Lhuillier-Cebu Niños to a rousing series opener, 98-78, to take a 1-0 lead over the Harbour Centre-backed Taguig Batang Global in the Smart Liga Pilipinas Finals at the Cebu Coliseum last night.
Tonight, Cebu will shoot for a commanding 2-0 lead as it hosts Game 2 still at the Cebu Coliseum starting at 6 p.m.
Saladaga played only 17 minutes and most of it was in the second quarter when Cebu was trailing.
Saladaga sparked a 14-2 Cebu run, scoring nine points to give the Niños a 46-39 lead at the 2:41 mark of the second.
Cebu was trailing by as many as 10 , 12-2 early in the opening quarter when the guns of Paul Reguerra found their mark early.
“We did not play defense in the first half, as a result, Taguig shot 61 percent from the field. The game was easy for them back then and we played basket for basket with them. That was why I made some changes in our defense and we played aggressively in the second half,” Cebu coach Yayoy Alcoseba told Sun.Star Cebu after the game.
With Cebu playing pressure defense on the Batang Global in the second half, a 13-5 blitz early on gave the Niños a 62-51 lead at the 6:12 mark of the third and Taguig crumbled into pieces after getting as close as seven points before the quarter ended with Cebu on top 72-63.
“Pressure was the key to that. We all know that Taguig is a talented team so we executed better defense and they failed to make an adjustment going down the wire,” said Alcoseba.
Sharp display
From shooting 20-of-33 in the opening half, Taguig made only 8-of-30 the rest of the way while Cebu improved from 17-of-34 to 38-of-74 on its way to win the ball game.
“That was a sharp display of heart. Cebu again displayed tremendous firepower. Obviously, their being a team together for years is their huge edge in their series and in the tournament. Being together is a huge factor,” said Liga Pilipinas president and CEO Noli Eala.
Again Cebu had dominated the battle of the boards 44-33, issued 21-15 assists and scored 24-14 in fastbreak.
“We will try to make some minor adjustments (going to Game 2), because I know Taguig will make a come back. We will prepare on whatever game they will try to play against us tomorrow (today),” said Alcoseba.
Aside from Saladaga, Cebu also got huge numbers from Jercules Tangkay and Woodrow Enriquez.
Tangkay and Enriquez were responsible in Cebu’s comeback from a 10-point deficit in the first quarter.
Tangkay scored eight straight and Enriquez added six as Cebu evened the game at 19-all.
Tangkay finished with 13 points while Enriquez had 12.
Erick Rodriguez played a monster game for Taguig as he topped the Batang Global with 19 points on top of 10 rebounds and two assists while Paul Reguerra and Jonathan Aldave added 15 and 13 points respectively.
