WITH a huge and loud crowd cheering them on, the Talisay City Aquastars came out swinging to take Game 1 of the best-of-three finals of the Governor’s Cup 2018 Basketball Tournament with a lopsided 89-68 victory over visiting San Francisco last Monday night in the Talisay City Sports Complex.

“We had a bit of an advantage because of our home court and then the crowd was in full support. At the same time, our players really played well. They paced with the running game of our opponent and I think we limited (Kenny Rogers) Rocacurva a little bit,” Talisay City head coach Michael Rey Guerra said.

Talisay City dominated San Francisco in the opening period, taking control of the board for second-chance opportunities. Talisay City also shot the ball well led by the trio of Jay Deiparine, Keaton Taburnal and Elmer Echavez, who combined for 22 points in first quarter, for a comfortable 27-9 lead.

Taburnal and Echavez continued where they left off in the opening quarter and led the Aquastars’ offense in the second. Talisay City also did a good job on San Francisco star Kenny Rogers Rocacurva and limited him to just three points in the first quarter.

Down by 19 points, 46-27, going into the second half, San Francisco finally crawled its way back up to make it a competitive contest in the third quarter. Rocacurva broke out of his slump and scored eight points, while he had help from big man Ravi Herda and high-flying Reynaldo Almacin Jr., who combined for 10 points.

San Francisco trimmed down the lead to just 12, 64-52, at the end of the third quarter.

“I told them that we are up ahead, we just have to focus and not get carried away by the pressure. I told them to just play your game and we will win as long as we’re focused on the game,” said Guerra of what he told his boys before going into the final quarter.

Rocacurva made it a 10-point ball game after hitting his shot to open the fourth, 64-54. But that was as close as San Francisco would get, as Kendrick Abarquez, Deiparine and Taburnal sparked a 10-2 run to bring it back up to 74-56.

San Francisco finally waved the flag with 3:02 left in regulation as coach Flavio Christian Liaz sent in his reserves.

Deiparine had 25 points, Echavez scored 23 and Taburnal added 22 for Talisay City. Rocacurva was the lone San Francisco player in double digits with 17 markers.

Although playing in hostile territory, Talisay City is ready to close it out in Game 2 tonight in the San Francisco Municipal Gym in Camotes.

“We expect that they will be all-out in this game. So we just have to prepare physically and mentally because we already don’t have time to practice. We’ll stick to our game plan,” said Guerra. (EKA)