TOYOTA Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod (CSAB) advanced to the semifinals with a victory over Red Phoenix, 91-76 last Friday in the 10th TKP Memorial Basketball Cup at the Po Hang gym, Taytung High School.
The trio of Richboy Javelona, Alfred Valle and Jun Lastimosa drove Toyota to the finish and spoiled Ariston Sillana’s gamehigh of 24 points.
Javelona poured a total of 20 points while Valle and Lastimosa combined 35 big points to out run the Phoenix.
Toyota has a big first quarter game with a 28-15 lead behind Jun Jun Lastimosa’s 11 points and continued the spark with their biggest lead in the second quarter 36-19 lead with 7:47 mark. But Phoenix rallied with a closing 16-4 behind Sammy Belangel and Sillana to cut the deficit by to 40-35 at the half.
At the start of the third quarter, Phoenix defense focused at the post, but guards of Toyota led by Javelona shot three treys and Valle got hot from the outside extending the lead to 66-49.
Meanwhile, the Bacolod Basketball Club (BBC) bounced back to improved their record from their 1st loss, 4-1 beating Bapro, 110-72 and dropping them to 3-2.
From a manageable 28-21 BBC 1st quarter lead Bapro was groping for their offense as they can only score eight points in the second quarter while BBC’s Carlo De La Torre single handedly outscored Bapro posting a 45-29 lead by halftime.
Bapro struggled all throughout the game with the unstoppable shooting machine of BBC.
The round-robin, single round semis-elimination for Class A starts Monday at 7 p.m. with defending champ Province of Negros Occidental faces PD888 Handy Fix; (8 p.m.)
Toyota Bacolod-CSAB takes Globe Asiatique-La Salle. (With reports from Stephen Tan/Scoop-Bacolod)