By: Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
As the months go by, the JB Amateur Basketball League playoffs window is also drawing to a close and teams are eager to sweep their remaining games.
During the weekend madness in JB ABL’s Elite Division Season 1, the Uniwheels Cars Display dispatched the ODM Sportswear squad, 105-85, the Asialink/E&C Trucking overcame a tough Beach Walk Jollyfeet Malditos team, 70-63, and the JKG/CTG Commercial prevailed over a towering Hiyang Filinvest, 79-70.
Despite the 41-point explosion of Inno Miclat including 11 drained threes, they still fell short against the powerhouse Uniwheels squad who shot lights out from all over the court.
Undermanned, the ODM squad still put up a valiant fight but ran out of gas in the final canto where the Uniwheels squad completely ran over them.
Kano Lauresta won player of the game honors, chalking up 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 interceptions.
The next matchup featured a slugfest between Asialink and Malditos, with neither team managing to establish a big lead.
From the start to the final frame, both teams matched each other’s scoring runs until the game finally went down to who can create more stops, and Asialink did.
Marvin Cuerbo played a crucial role in the clutch minutes of the game, dictating the pace for Asialink and winning player of the game with his 13 points and 2 dimes.
The next game featured a late-rally comeback from JKG/CTG squad against an imposing Filinvest team.
With their towering big men underneath, Filinvest started to establish a large cushion and looked to pull away with the game with key additions in Jepoy Balleza and Jefferson Sarmiento but the opposition’s ball movement was flawless in the final canto, bringing them back into the game.
Kein Apitong and Clint Mesias started to knock down treys and Merlou Molina’s dime-dropping went on full display to give them the much-needed win.
Commissioner Jayphet Balbacal also had an Executive sportsmanship pocket league, where the team coaches, managers, and owners are the ones playing.
The first game, team Grecia Malditos defeated coach Rodel Camacho of Asialink and his squad, 70-62, where Dr. Ramon Grecia torched them with 7 made treys.
The next game featured a matchup between the executives of team CTG and team Banned Forever where CTG got the better of the latter.
Patrick Huyan of team CTG went hot early, knocking down cushion threes for a comfortable lead.
Johndy Orleans was also a key factor with his scoring that helped maintain the lead, and the post scoring of best player of the game, Michael Supetran, with 20 points, 3 dimes, and 2 rebounds.
