This occurred after Autonomous broke all hopes of Department of Corrections to advance to the finals of the Inter-government/Business Basketball League last Friday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.
Autonomous trashed DOC, 83-69 in a match that tested both teams’ will and perseverance in the hard court.
No doubt, the issue of will is out of the question as the two rivals want the championship title so much. But somewhere along the line, one of them will commit forced errors.
The trio of Ed Diaz, Bobby Coldeen and Tim Wesley were effective enough to bungle DOC cagers’ plan to rip its defensive stance.
Diaz crafted 27 points. Early in the match he already made two successive lay-ups, responding to DOC’s Gregorio Blas and Walter Mendez’ two pointers.
A rainbow shot by Diaz that connected to the basket during the second quarter of play, helped Autonomous to regain composure.
Later in the third quarter, the power forward came out with a series of two points via fastbreak, contributing eight points for the Autonomous.
Coldeen helped out in the offense, with aggressive drive through the painted zone. Coldeen leaped from the three-point territory and twice connected to the basket.
He was responsible for creating a wide margin of deficit over DOC.
Wesley was equally responsible for Autonomous’ as several of his attempts inside DOC’s zone met some foul by the Corrections men.
Wesley made 15 points in the entire match.
The points poured in by Jeffrey Quitugua, Luis Iguel, and Mendez for DOC were eventually put to waste as their other teammates could not close in to the basket without encountering strong and effective opposition from Autonomous.
Earlier, DOC beat Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, 81-70, with Greg Blas tallying 20 points for his team.
Walter Mendez fired 18, and Jeffrey Quitugua released 16 shots in the basket.
If DOC won the match with Autonomous recently, it could have remained on the winner’s bracket with a chance to advance to the playoffs.
Scores:
Autonomous – 83: Diaz – 27; Jun Aaron – 6; Coldeen – 22; Wesley – 15; Chris Camacho – 7; and Richard Brostrom – 6.
DOC – 69: Iguel – 22; Blas – 2; Quitugua – 27; Mendez – 10; Peter Mendiola – 2; Maverick Itibus – 3; and Sinada Irank – 3.
