By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Team Medics basketball team and the CTG-YANLEX squad made sure they’ll end 2021 with a bang after getting their respective victories in the last set of games of the JB Amateur Basketball League (JB ABL) Season II this year.
Team Medics captured one of their best wins in the young season of the tournament after outlasting the veteran-laced team ODM Sportswear, 78-76, and finally got their first win of the season.
The younger and fresher legs of Team Medics proved to be the difference in the game as their constant full-court pressure and speed became their two main keys to their win.
Their effort in boxing out to grab second possessions also presented huge trouble for team ODM in the rebounding department.
It was ODM who was leading in the third quarter by as much as eight but Team Medics’ full-court pressure once again helped them generate more offensive opportunities that helped them keep up offensively.
Down seven with 50 seconds left in the final canto, ODM had the chance to steal the win after sniper Paul Razel Rubin drained two treys in 30 seconds to cut the lead to just one, 77-76, with just 11 seconds left in the game.
However, a free-throw from Team Medics eventually iced the game with Rubin also missing the potential game-winning three off a well-designed curl play from head coach Matthew Montalvo.
In the second game, experience prevailed over youth this time as the stacked CTG team outdueled team Systemic, 82-78.
It was a classic nip-and-tuck physical affair from two equally matched teams that wanted to win at all cost.
For four grueling quarters, both teams battled from start to finish and had four total lead changes, exchanging scoring runs.
It was Systemic who looked to blow the game wide open as former UAAP gunner Gus Denila fired quick points from the three-point land.
However, John Samones and Clint Mesias provided early work for team CTG as they answered the scoring burst of Systemic in the first quarter.
The physical game went close until the final quarter but Samones shot the lights out and put the entire team behind his back after a scoring frenzy that helped CTG balloon their lead to eight points.
Systemic had their chances of staying within striking distance but their two missed free throws in the crucial stretch hurt them in piling up their points to win.
This will be JB ABL’s last set of games for 2021 and will resume again next year, with the tentative date on January 4 or 5, 2022.
