Satbahi had the game under control during the first half as Mix Blood couldn’t stop Elgien Mangali, who scored the number on his jersey, 14, in those first twenty minutes of play.
Satbahi went into halftime up by ten, 36-26, and felt confident they had the game in the bag, but Mix Blood wouldn’t go away quietly.
They came out of intermission guns blazing as they eventually cut the lead to single digits, catalyzed by an offensive show led by Jeff Pagarao’s eight points in the third period.
As the final quarter began, Satbahi still showed signs of complacency as Mix Blood showed more effort in the first minutes of the period with their aggressive full court man-to-man defense which caught some of Satbahi’s players off guard.
Mix Blood’s play paid off as they got the lead to within four with about three minutes to go in the fourth.
Satbahi started to settle down and played their version of man-to-man defense, finally getting some stops and ultimately ending Mix Blood’s impressive attempt at a comeback.
Satbahi’s Mangali was the game’s top scorer with 21 points. Manolo Manalo was the only other Satbahi player with double figures, 11 points.
Dennis Morales and Randy Mungcal both top scored for Mix Blood with 18 markers on the score sheet. Their teammate, Pagarao finished with a nice 16 to cap their team’s losing effort.
With the win, Satbahi is now alone on top of the league standings after wins against Mix Blood, Cavite-Andoks, and defending champion MAFEA-Konflikt.
Scores:
VisMinda-Satbahi 74 – Mangali 21, Manalo 11, Barbo 9, Eclevia 7, Santos 6, De Dios 5, Inos 5, Peredo 4, Paraiso 4, Camacho 2
NMBA Mix Blood 63 – Morales 18, Mungcal 18, Pagarao 16, Ito 6, Acosta 2, Valiente 1, Cortez 1, Montes 1
Quarter scores: 17-10, 36-26, 56-49, 74-63
MAFEA-Konflikt 82, Cavite-Andoks 78
After two consecutive losses to VisMinda-Satbahi and Namfrel-Proa, defending champion MAFEA-Konflikt finally broke into the win column with an 82-78 victory over Cavite-Andoks.
The game had the makings of going down to the wire as Andoks was up by one after the first ten minutes of play.
The defending champions started to look like champions in the second quarter with a balanced scoring effort as they took the lead from Andoks, making it 44-38 heading into intermission.
But Andoks eventually cut the deficit to two behind a rejuvenated offense led by Tim Wesley’s eight points in the period.
It was 60-58 after three, heading into the final quarter.
The fourth quarter was a close and entertaining one as both teams were vying for that W.
Andoks’ Joy Dayrit scored a very strong 11 points, the same number on his jersey to keep his team afloat.
But Konflikt’s prolific guard Elmer Esdrelon bucketed a pair of triples, while his teammates, Jawn Joyner and Ivan De Vero chipped in a combined 12 points in that final period.
Konflikt sealed their first victory on De Vero’s two charity strikes.
De Vero was also Konflikt’s leading scorer with 17 points. Joyner had 16, while Esdrelon added 14.
Dayrit led Andoks’ strong, but losing effort with 20 nice ones, while Wesley posted 18 for his part.
Scores:
MAFEA-Konflikt 82 – De Vero 17, Joyner 16, Esdrelon 14, Guiab 13, Barrios 10, Aquino 6, Tumaquip 4, Talania 2
Cavite-Andoks 78 – Dayrit 20, Wesley 18, Muleta 13, Mabini 12, Pelisamen 7, Artates 4, Olaitiman 4
Quarter scores: 20-21, 44-38, 60-58, 82-78
