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BATANGAS CITY: Hapee Toothpaste rallied from a huge
18-point deficit to score a spine-tingling 74-73 victory over
Harbour Centre in Game 1 of their title series in the PBL Lipovitan
Amino Sports Cup at the Batangas City Sports Centre.
Almost given up for the dead
after falling behind by 18 points twice in the third, the last time
at 63-45, the Complete Protectors slowly inched their way before
holding the defending champions scoreless in the last 1:26 to gain a
headstart in their best-of-5 title series.
“I told the guys to be
patient and they did. Their resilience really mattered this time,”
said coach Louie Alas. “We struggled early but good thing we came
back strong in the fourth.”
A bristling 13-4 run, six
of them from veteran Francis Mercado, put Hapee within 68-71 before
Chad Alonzo scored on a putback for a 73-68 lead.
That, however, proved to be
Harbour’s last hurrah as the Batang Pier turned the ball thrice
which the Complete Protectors translated into a vicious 6-0 wind-up.
After Mark Borboran put Hapee in
front, 74-73, on a perfect assist by Gabe Norwood, the Batang Pier
had two chances to turn the game around in the last 21 ticks.
But Ty Tang and Jason Castro
bungled their chances with Tang committing an offensive foul and
Castro running into a wall of Hapee defenders as time expired.
Larry Rodriguez, who was not on
the court in the crucial stage of the game, still led Hapee with 18
points while Borboran and Mercado backed him up with 10 points each.
Norwood had only 9 points but
finished with 6 assists, 6 rebounds and a steal in 34 minutes of
play.
Despite the win, Alas refused to
celebrate, saying: “This doesn’t mean anything yet in a
best-of-5 series. We expect Harbour to bounce back in Game 2.”
Both teams started slow as they
combined only four field goals in the first four minutes of the game
but somehow gathered enough steam in the second quarter with the
Batang Pier exploding for 28 points that put them on top, 43-37.
Chad Alonzo and Jeff Chan led
Harbour’s attack in the first 20 minutes of play with seven points
each while Castro and Beau Belga combined for 11 points.
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