C&C Café /Ang Bata Hardware, Bobcats and Reach Sports Colegio San Agustin advanced to the knockout semifinals of the 17 and under category of the 3rd Chairman’s Cup Negros after games held at the Willy and Nolita Au Court, Bacolod Tay Tung High School.
Second seed C&C Café defeated number 3 Bacolod Trinity Christian School/Lamtex Plastic Ware 82-75, while the third seeded Bobcats upset second place Obi Knights 61-57, and second ranked Reach Sports C held off Kenn, 61-52.
Ang Bata Hardware had some anxious moments when their 65-55 advantage going to the 4th quarter melted away behind the outside sniping of BTCS, highlighted by back to back three pointers courtesy of Kenan Abella and John Joseph Gerardo, which cut the deficit to 71-73 with 4:09 remaining. However, Ahron Cagayao and Jerry Manday engineered a 9-4 closing game run to advance to the semifinals.
Manday delivered a game high 27 points, Jester Paypa – 20, Ahron Cagayao – 10, and Grant Gepana – 9. Meanwhile, Gerardo paced Lamtex with 19 markers, Andrei Sto. Tomas – 18, Abella -12, and Enzo Robles – 10.
In the other game, Obi Knights held a commanding 38-20 lead at the halftime break, led by Aethan Kyle Pimentel and Jhals Sultan conspiring for 18 points, but the Bobcats got back their bearings and surprised the Knights in the 3rd quarter as Karl Agravante, JayJay Dayon, and Terrence John Java hit 6 points apiece to cut the deficit to one. As the OBI Knights’ offense continued to falter in the last quarter, scoring only 10 points, the Bobcats relied on the 8 points of Dayon to complete the come from behind victory.
Dayon bannered Bobcats with 14 markers, Agravante and Paolo Rasmo nailed 10 apiece, and Tyne Kang dropped 8. Sultan led OBI Knights with 12 points and Pimentel delivered 11.
Kenn was in the driver’s seat during the 1st quarter, ending it at 16-10, but the Reach Sports CSAB defense limited them to 6 points in the 2nd quarter to take a 27-22 lead by halftime. Behind a balanced Reach Sports third quarter offense, the lead ballooned to 49-34. And although Kenn outscored CSAB in the payoff quarter, it was not enough to regain the lead from CSAB.
CSAB was spearheaded by Raishen Rojas’ 15 points, backstopped by Ed Marinduque with 14 and John Christopher Matavia scoring 9. Jake Roxas and Floyed Lumio led Kenn with 8 markers apiece, while Dylan Umadhay added 7.
The 21-under knockout quarterfinals will go underway today, with the first game at 10 am, as second ranked Visayan Maritime Academy Undrafted tangles with number 3 JJP University of Negros Occidental. Second seed STI West Negros University will then try to overcome Mejica Automotive/Fyr Fyter in the following game.
Ang Bata Hardware will face Bracket C top seed Acster BTTHS at 1 pm, while in Bracket B, University of St. La Salle will go against Colegio De San Agustin at 2:20 pm. For the nightcap, the Bobcats will try to continue their run against bracket leader New Energy Marketing/RAAK Transport.
The tournament is in cooperation with the United Negros Basketball League and Toyota Negros Occidental. All playoff games are played at the Willy and Nolita Au Court, Bacolod Tay Tung High School.*
