Sports Eye

By February 18, 2020Opinion, Sports Eye

Upsets in provincial cagefest

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

“BILOG ang bola” as the axiom says about any ball game especially basketball. It happened again last February 8 and 9 during the group A and B quarterfinals of the ongoing “4th Governor’s Cup Pangasinan Inter-Town/City Basketball Tournament held In San Nicolas, Pangasinan and San Carlos City gyms that surprised enthusiasts including this writer.

First victim was the Eastern Pangasinan Conference pennant winner Sto. Tomas who succumbed to my town mates (Mangaldan), 114-110, in overtime. It happened, too, to three-time first runner-up Manaoag, 94-81 victimized by Alaminos City, 75-65, to share the lead in group A with Mangaldan (after it overwhelmed Bugallon, 122-105 in its second game) and Western Conference champion Anda (after it overpowered Bugallon, 107-90) and edged host San Nicolas, 91-88. The three are unblemished so far with two wins, no loss.

Two upsets also occurred in group B. Umingan, thumped by Bayambang, 91-78, on its first match in the quarterfinals, came back raging in its second assignment and nipped first edition champion Binmaley, 87-86. Binmaley, leading by a mere point, 86-85, in the dying seconds of the match, committed a costly foul one second remaining. The fouled Umingan wily point-guard Biñas successfully converted his two free throws to seal the victory.

Group B’s second upset was the Bayambang-Malasiqui tussle that saw Malasiqui prevailing, 76-67. Upset because based on the record sof the two neighboring towns, Bayambang is superior in the first three editions of this annual province wide cagefest, a brainchild sport project of our sports-minded head of the province Amado “Pogi” I. Espino, III.

“The three seasons dominated by Binmaley, Lingayen, Manaoag and Urdaneta City is not the way it used to be now as far as plays are concerned,” said Manny Munoz of San Carlos City, an avid basketball follower. “First is the tiny town Anda, then Malasiqui and Umingan wrecking some of the seeded teams. But still I’m not counting out the seeded teams.”

The rejuvenated Lingayen five of Mayor Leopoldo N. Bataoil relived its winning form by stubbornly defeating the defending titleholder Urdaneta City in an action-packed hostility game last Sunday (February 9) held at San Carlos City gym. I was there and saw how the two title challengers clashed with much gusto to win recording nine deadlocks and nine seesaw leads but in the end the Lingayen quintet mentored by veteran tutor Jason Vinluan prevailed, 86-80, to the delight of the team and fans.

Leading the front in the first two quarters with a precarious three-point margin, 20-17 and 41-38, the determined, towering Urdaneta boys of Rizaldy Garcia, tied the score in the third period, 57-57, after four seesaw leads with third edition MVP Jerico Mondala dominated the boards and bombs for the Urdanetans.

Unperturbed and using its stifling defense, the well-trained quintet of Vinluan slowly but surely took the front for good with hulking center Jesse Artates dominating the last quarter surge with nine points that lifted the capital town with a 86-80 victory to top the group B with two wins without defeat.

“We worked hard during the gme, team effort, practice intensively and most of all blessing from above,” Vinluan cheerfully said. Garcia, on ther hand, said “Out of condition due to deficiency of practice, and the 18 turnovers in the first half alone obviously were the real causes of our defeat.”

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And Jesus Christ said, “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” MATTHEW 24: 7-8

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