BAGUIO CITY – ROC-A became the first to knot a victory in the YMCA Cup semifinals, clashing with DOPE Squad for the second seed versus third seed cross-over system, even as St. Andrews, on the top position, upends fourth seed, BENECO-Voltz for bracket “Y”.
Both ball clubs almost got game forfeitures in game one before completing five players on the court continued to play with shallow benches that made the game a slow scoring game.
Going easy to reserve stamina and endurance, game action saw ROC-A stepped a bit of the gas to post a 26-18 run in the first canto. The game pace continued as ROC’s Jomar Viado, and Ahmed Alshati of the gold shirts controlled the boards and pile points on offense to end the first half of play with a 48-37 lead.
Third canto action was no different as ROC continuously pounded the Dope with points through Nanoy Mariano and Paolo Almazora’s penetrations on the paint and defensive moves that brought stoppage to DOPE, limiting them to a 14 points in the third canto. This continued on the fourth quarter to carry ROC-A’s to its first win in their semi-final match-up.
Meanwhile, St. Andrews had the same fate of Dope as the BENECO- Voltz bucketed 28 points in the first canto, leaving St. Andrews with an eleven point deficit, 28-17, staring the at the end of the first.
Derailing St. Andrews game plan, the Voltz manage to implore complete domination of the game as they limited them to only six points in the second canto and ending the first half of play leading, 44-23.
Ensuring a win against the top contender for the final round might have given the Voltz’ will to win as they continued to pour in points in the third canto of play even as St. Andrews outscored them, 30-22 in trying to chip off the lead, to still lead 58-47, Voltz in the third canto.
Voltz on the other hand, steadily took their offensive strategies to work even as St. Andrews ditched their last efforts to at least force an extension play. Voltz ended the game with an 80-77 score at the end of the fourth canto buzzer.
Other winners in last weeks’ semi-final games were; Inatech 79-My desk 78 (C), Dos Republic 100 – Reserves 94 (M), Falcons 96 – Monday Ball Club 87 (A), Stingers 81 – Kuya Ponz 75 (C).
By: BOBBY VINLUAN
