Executives Deploy Barrage of Triples to Capture Laity Special Cup

La Trinidad – Executive Mixers blended a barrage of rainbow shots by their backcourt with ball rotation and hustling defense to knockout the Justice, 88-74, and capture the Laity Cup Special Tournament last July 28, 2016 at the San Jose Gym, here.

The backcourt of the Mixers carried the fight to the Justice by long distance bombs right from the opening buzzer and set the tone for the Executives. They deployed 10 rainbow attempts during the first quarter and the early part of the second and six of them detonated which opened scoring opportunities for the other Mixers for the rest of the game.

It all started after Reagan Caluza canned a basket to open the scoring for the game. That ushered the backcourt trio of Gusval Bolislis, Paulito Dayso and Arman Bolislis in taking over. They proceeded to connect six treys and scored 29 of the next 32 Mixers points to hatch the team’s initial offensive onslaught. That enabled the Mixers to take a 12-point first quarter lead, 28-16 and subsequently build it to a 15 point cushion, 34-19, just under eight minutes left in the second canto.

See complete standings: Laity Cup: Special Tourney (Inter Office 1): Mixers are the first titlists

The backcourt was on target, particularly from downtown. Gusval Bolislis was three for six, Arman Bolislis was two for three, while Dayso was one for two from the arc. The only other points coming from other Mixers during the run were from a basket by Colin Lumbican and a freethrow by Rolly Paleng.

After a Justice time-out, The Executives let their defense and ball rotation took over the rest of the quarter. They limited the Justice to just 10 for the rest of the first half while the other Mixers jumped in the scoring parade to extend the lead. Rolly Paleng and Caluza pumped in four each, and Allan Contero, Haggard Pantaleon and David Lingon added a basket each, to go along with Gusval Bolislis’ seven, including another triple, as their advantage balloon to 28, 57-29, at halftime.

As a result of their hot outside shooting and ball rotation, the Mixers got what they wanted in the third to maintain the safe lead, a balanced scoring from the team. A total of eight players marked their name in the score sheet, including two more triples, one each by the Bolislis brothers, during the third. Gusval Bolislis scored five while Allan Contero had four during the collective 22 point quarter output by the Mixers that effectively countered a Justice charge.

Seven points by Roderick Pacuyan, six each by Atty. Hazen Binay-an, Jeffrey Antonio, and Frederick Arce, and four by Atty Bernouli Binay-an got the Justice rallying for 29 third canto points that somewhat cut the lead to 21, 79-58.

That would actually be the last time the Justice would seriously threaten the lead as the Mixers would again call on their defense to finish the job. After a quick exchange of baskets to open the fourth, 81-60, with 9:10 to go, the Mixers defense locked down the Justice offense for the next five minutes. The score would remain a standstill until the 6:43 mark when Paleng laid-up to make it 83-60 and again would not move for another two minutes until the next Justice basket would finally come via a Walter Palaez short jumper, 83-61, time down to 4 and a half minutes. Paleng added two more baskets and a freethrow for the insurance points.

The Mixers earlier eliminated the Legal Officers, 78-69, last July 26 to barge into the finals. After leading the first quarter by just one, 15-14, they dropped a 24-11 second quarter bomb to take control of the go-home semifinal match by halftime, 39-25.

The third was just about even as both teams exhibited fine clutch shooting and tight defensive covering that prevented open looks to the baskets for the opposition. The third end up with the Mixers still up, 57-44, just a point less that their halftime lead.

The Legal Officers launched multiple rallies in the fourth but was only able only to come closest to the lead at six points. That happened late in the fourth as the Mixers held on with key defensive stops and clutch baskets and fully utilize their twice to beat advantage to barge to the finals.

The Executive Mixers are the fifth champions of a Laity Cup during the league’s two-year, five season existence. The Joseans bagged Season 1, CCDC got Season 2, and the KTB Apostles and the La Trinidad Public Marketers were were tops during the two-bracket season 3. The Marketers repeated in Season 4 then came the Mixers in the Special tournament. A sure sixth different champ will arise when on-going BBA Cup under the Laity umbrella is completed in just a few weeks.

In the battle for third, Attys. Nielson Sabog and Jake Sagpaey dropped 27 points in the crucial third quarter and led a fighting five Legal Team to the bronze against the DepEd Mentors, 93-78.

The Legal Officers were up by just four at the half when Sagpaey scored 14 and Sabog drilled in 13 to tow their team to a significant separation after the third, 59-46.
Sabog scored half of the Legal’s total output while ageless wonder Lucio Arenos and Ayson Acbayaan led the Mentors offense with 29 and 24, respectively.

The scores:
Executive Mixers 88: G. Bolislis 23, Dayso 16, Paleng 14, A. Bolislis 9, Caluza 8, Contero 6, Pantaleon 6, Linggon 4, Lumbican 2.
Justice 74: H. Binay-an 20, Antonio 15, Pacuyan 12, Arce 11, Bernouli Binay-an 10, Palaez 4, Oliver Jones Sergio 2.
3 pt shots made: G. Bolislis 5, A. Bolislis 3, Depayso 1, H. Binay-an 1.

Legal 93: Sabog 42, Sagpaey 26, John Fernandez 16, Noli Guiad 5, Bartolo Deneng 4.
DepEd Mentors 78: Arenos 29, Acbayaan 24, Remus Beray 12, Alex Batara 8, Julius Baliquied 3, Julius Dig-o 2, Mandrake Duyao, Agustino Amancio.
3 pt shots made: Sabog 2, Guiad 1.

With reports from Roderick Pacuyan