MJAS Zenith-Talisay City gained an outright spot in the 2021 Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup Visayas Leg finals after sweeping the 10-game eliminations with a 99-62 rout of the ARQ Builders Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday at the Alcantara Civic Center in Cebu.
The sweep gave Talisay City an automatic spot in the best-of-three Visayas Leg finals and at the same time forced a stepladder semifinals to determine the other protagonist in the best-of-three finals.
“The sweep gives us the thluxury of resting the players’ bodies,” Aquastars head coach Aldrin Morante said. “They deserve to rest.”
The Aquastars rode ‘sPatrick Cabahug red-hot shooting in the first period where he tallied nine points that pushed the team to a 24-9 lead.
It was an all Talisay City show from there as Lapu-Lapu struggled with its shots and could get no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
Talisay City closed out the game in dominant fashion, outscoring Lapu-Lapu, 30-11, in the fourth period highlighted by a pair of slam dunks from high-leaping Jaymar Gimpayan.
Cabahug finished with 22 points spiked by five triples while Kevin Villafranca helped out with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Darrell Menina came off the bench and tallied 11 points, four boardsrebounds, four assists and two steals. Wide-bodied big man Allan Santos missed out on a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Aquastars skipper Paulo Hubalde also orchestrated Talisay City’s offense to perfection and finished with six points, seven rebounds and 13 assists.
The Heroes struggled from the field and shot only 31 percent—including a paltry 4-of-22 from beyond the three-point.
The loss dropped the Heroes to 4-5 won-lost with just one more game left on their eliminations schedule.
Ferdinand Lusdoc paced Lapu-Lapu City with 12 points while Jojo Tangkay and Chris Regero chipped in 10 points apiece.
Rendell Senining, who returned from a six-game suspension, had four points and four assists in 20 minutes of on the floor.
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