COMPOSTELA VALLEY, July 29 ---Vincent Sambas hit the dagger from the rainbow territory in the last 1:00 minute of the final quarter to secure a getaway lead past DepED, 82-76 in the 1st Mayor’s Cup Inter- Agency Open Basketball Tournament Championship Game last July 22 at the jampacked Nabunturan Covered Court in celebration of the 56th Araw ng Nabunturan.
Crowd-favorite DepED who topped all the way in the first three quarters of the import –decorated tourney struggled downtown when Sambas with a game-high 20 points, shot perfectly 5 out of 5 from the arc including the killer trey that ignited a breakaway for USWAG to take the driver’s seat at crunch time.
“It was our defense and teamwork that mattered most in our victory,” said Sambas, a native of Nabunturan who is a consistent sharp shooting gunner point guard.’
DepED fielded younger and faster trio in Angelo Morilla, Kelly Maranan and Eduardo Advincula, all scoring double digits. Maranan led all scorers with 20 points.
DepED was earlier a picture of a winnable whose fastbreak transitions and perimeter drives were unstoppable including that of Morilla’s highlight pass to Advincula for an alley-hoop. It was simply a statement of firepower that wowed the crowd and threatened the hefty USWAG.
But signs of fatigue crept closer to the endgame that set their offensive fire dying and defensive wall collapsing because they all played fulltime. Only Borres, Santiago and Nistal served as breathers for less than three minutes for DepED while USWAG capitalized on their deeper bench to sap DepED’s powerhouse.
‘We could have maintained the lead until the final minutes and took home the trophy but we became loose in defending the shooters from firing the treys in the crucial moments, and that’s why we lost’, said Coach Allan Taray of DepED in an interview.
Taray also expressed dismay over dubious calls from the referees at the time when DepED was taking control of the life cycle. He said USWAG committed too many travelling violations which the referee failed to call. Thrice were also foul calls, he said, that were not supposed to be awarded against DepED players. Such situation lost DepED’s focus in the game.
The game also turned out to be physical when DepED was leading by 14 points in the first quarter, 33-19.Bothered, USWAG’s Gani Gisma hit Christopher Nistal on the cheek and was called for a technical foul.
Forward Cablas also had a second motion against Velasco that drove coach Taray inside the court to stop Cablas from attacking Velasco.
Both team players got off the bench toward the center court during verbal tussle. Referee Alfetche though succeeded in pacifying at that time the players and crowd became loud. Velasco took the charities but missed.
USWAG, a team of the Provincial Government of Compostela Valley led by Provincial Sports Coordinator Francis P. Secuya, continued their chase to taste the lead until they came closer by five points, 40-35, at halftime. The surge continued in favour of DepED until Allan Palaca’s two consecutive treys put USWAG down by three in the last 6:29 of the final quarter, 62-65. Cablas then, hit the jumper to move them an inch closer of snatching the lead, 64-65.And lately,the tide changed in favour of USWAG going to the end.
With last two minutes remaining, lights suddenly went off in the gym and it took the organizers half an hour to restore power for game resumption. Reenergized DepED tried to recover the momentum, but it was too little, too late. Their hope to regain the lead was shut down by USWAG’s big men Bago and Gisma who controlled the boards for stabs underneath the basket.
More hurting was when Sambas swished a trey and another to seal the triumph before he was fouled out in the last 16 seconds.
USWAG bagged 5,000 cash plus a Mayor’s trophy. DepED settled for 3,000 pesos and DANECO was good for 1,000. Other categories included the Top 40, Inter-High Schools and Inter Barangays. The tournament was sponsored by Nabunturan Integrated Cooperative, Local Government Unit of Nabunturan and other partner institutions of this town. (RITCHELL ‘JONG’ CRUZ, SP III Manat National High School)
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