Ben Buñol led the way with 38 points as the IOTA-ST 68 won their semifinal game against Alpha in the Fil-Sino 1st Accelera Basketball Cup.
The game started as a competitive contest in the first half, as the teams traded buckets with outputs of 20-20 and 18-17 in the first and second quarters, respectively, as IOTA held a one point lead going into half time.
IOTA dominated the third quarter, winning the frame 21-11 to extend their lead to 11 points, heading into the final ten minutes of the game. They kept up the pace in the fourth, headlined by Buñol who scored 19 points in the quarter, including five buckets from the rainbow line. The final score was 82-63, in favor of IOTA who moved on to the finals. Jolly Castillo finished the game with 18 points for Alpha followed by JYU with 11.
The other semifinal game saw Ultra 3 outlasting 651 Sports to land a place in the finals. The Ultras held a six-point lead after the first quarter, and then continued to outscore their opponents again, 25-17 in the second frame, to head into halftime with a double digit lead, 46-32.
Ultra 3 continued to pour it on the offensive end, outscoring 651 Sports again, 25-22 in the third quarter. The Sports would not go down easily, and matched bucket for bucket in the fourth quarter. However, as time ran out in the final quarter, they couldn’t do enough to gain meaningful ground and were unable to complete the comeback as the game ended with a final score of 87-78.
Harvey Eslawa led Ultra 3 with a game high 33 points to go along with player of the game honors, while Kim Dimaranan paced 651 Sports with 23 points.*
