Excelroof showed championship poise in the stretch to hack out a 97-87
come-from-behind overtime victory against Pharex B Complex in Game 1 of
the 2010 PBL PG Flex-Erase Placenta Cup on Thursday at The Arena in San
Juan City.
The 25ers, with members of NCAA Season 85 titlist San Sebastian in their roster, used their championship experience to move closer of claiming the season-opening crown.
Even though facing a 17-point (48-31) deficit early in the third quarter, Excelroof was never unfazed and slowly chip away Pharex’s lead behind the combined efforts of Jimbo Aquino, Calvin Abueva, Gilbert Bulawan and John Raymundo.
"Since I used most of my players are from San Sebastian, we managed to capitalize on our championship experience," said Excelroof coach Ato Agustin.
"Our shots were not falling in the first half. My players never gave up and their efforts helped us win this game."Aquino and Bulawan teamed up to trim that Fighting Maroons lead in the third while Raymundo engineered the 25ers’ fourth-quarter comeback to force the extra five minutes.
Abueva then went to work in overtime toying with his defenders while also holding the fort for Excelroof to spoil Pharex’s every scoring attempt.
Aquino fired a game-high 27 points while Bulawan added 24 aside from a conference-high 17 rebounds. Abueva tallied 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Raymundo only scored eight points but six of it came in the final period during the time the 25ers were making a comeback.
Regulation ended at 83-all with Marlon Adolfo forcing overtime after scoring on a reverse lay-up as the buzzer sounded.The 6-foot-2 Abueva made his end-game heroics even though he is in foul trouble providing the spark that rubbed off to his teammates.Abueva scored six straight points in a closing 11-0 exchange in overtime and even blocked a Mark Lopez jumper to seal Excelroof’s win.
Pharex, which topped the elimination round with a league-best 6-1 card, missed the services Vic Manuel, who hurt his knee after colliding with Abueva to sit out the final 32 seconds of regulation.
Agustin and his 25ers aim to close out the short best-of-three series on Saturday also at the The Arena.
"I expect Game 2 to be tougher and harder since we’ll both make adjustments. But if we remain to play at this level we can sweep the series," said Agustin, who steered the Golden Stags to the NCAA and CHED National Games basketball crowns.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer
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