By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
This time, experience prevailed over youth.
The JKG Mamba squad showed the young guns of the XYZ/Toto-Tia-Ten squad how veterans run the show after their 110-90 victory in the 1st Mayor Stephen Palmares Pintados de Passi open Basketball invitational tournament.
Bong Talimay dazzled the Passi crowd after putting on a shooting clinic from the three-point line, sinking 10 treys that torched XYZ the whole game.
Aside from shooting the lights out, Talimay also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, with six assists and a steal.
Every time the XYZ squad threatened to go on a run, Talimay shut the door on them. Gerry Abadiano and his squad just had no answers for Talimay’s hot-shooting.
XYZ showed signs of life as the first half was about to close, cutting the 22-point lead to just 14, led by former MPBL cager Abadiano and the shooting of Peter Traviña.
However, JKG regained the momentum in the second half and took full control of the game, using their veteran smarts to outplay the opposing team.
In the other games, DPWH out-dueled HERCOR College from Roxas, 84-77, the Guimaras Leopards trampled team Ogtonganon, 90-71, and the AMISTAD/TEJ team man-handled PNP, 93-55.
