KUWAIT CITY, Dec 5: HEISCO’s Joel Alcantara and Petines combined to score 35 points scored to lead their side to a resounding 70-43 victory over KASCO as the 7th Conference of the PHILBACK/Western Union Basketball Tournament continues at the Jawhara Khalijia Arabic School in Riggae on Friday. The week-end’s games were a mixed bag of nail-biting down-to- the-wire finishes, no shows and clear wins with results unexpected in some instances.
Heisco put up a brilliant performance to beat the tough Kasco squad in their Inter-Company clash Friday, atoning for their loss last week against ITHC Slashers, in dominating fashion, leaving no room for doubt as to who is the better team. They pulled of the victory with a combination of smothering defense and a well-oiled offense that left the aviation caterers seemingly dazed.

Although both squads applied tough defense, Heisco did it with such telling effect that only one aviation caterer managed to come up with double figures, leaving the latter’s marksmen no clear looks with their leech-like marking; and though the caterers succeeded in slowing down Castro, they had no solution against the deadly trio of Alcantara, Petines and Soriano who took turns tormenting them, raining points from virtually all angles.
Kasco stayed close on the heels of Heisco in the early going, finishing the first quarter of play down just 8-9, but were left floundering in the next when Heisco tightened the screws, breaking the game wide open with a 36-18 blitz at the halftime break, and then preserved their lead by matching the caterers shot for shot the rest of the way until the buzzer mercilessly ended the caterers’ ordeal. Alcantara knocked in 19 markers to lead all scorers while Petines had 16, Abuyen 11, Soriano 7, Castro 6 and Nato Cruz 5 with the rest of the points spread among the team. Joseph Paraton paced Kasco with 13 with Amiel Tio chipping in 8.

Results for the rest of the week-end’s game were as follows:
IKEA 64 vs Baroue 32; Go Sport 87 vs SAK 66; Heisco 70 vs Kasco 43; Vipers 63 vs Bayan Dental 61; Cardiac Center 60 vs PANIK 58; ITHC 80 vs Mixers 58; Safara 91 vs Heisco 83; Brgy Tropa 20 vs Gemini 0; Balik Islam 20 vs Alfonso 0; Matrix 60 vs Balleros 47; JC Net 75 vs Rated-PG 73; Tropang-TH 87 vs Knights 76; Suns 73 vs Exo Warriors 58; Cools 66 vs Mr. Baker 64.
Edward Mangalua and Daryl showed their championship pedigrees as they led the IKEA squad to shoot down the high-flying Baroue squad in the in the second Inter-Company game of the day. The two stalwarts guided their team past Baroue, with Mangalua quarterbacking the offense while also delivering clutch hits and perimeter threat Daryl playing decoy to set up Ryan Lizardo and Melvin Ramos. Nato Policarpio also led the Baroue squad in defense that denied IKEA’s hitmen from getting good looks at the basket. With the slippery Mangalua leading the offense, Ikea led in the early going, taking the first quarter 15-8 on the combined efforts of Daryl, Mangalua and Joel. Baroue seemed to have lost momentum, thus leaving the Ikea scorers to have a field day to the end. Mangalua led led Ikea scorers in double figures with 24 points followed by Daryl with 14 with Joel and Monteras lobbing in 9 apiece. Ryan Lizardo tallied 10 with Ramos adding 9 points for the losing Baroue squad.

In another Inter-Company clash, Go Sport, still relishing their victory last week over the Square squad, managed to add SAK to their growing list of victims. Chris Mose led Go Sport with 29, Gil Manalansan 21, Wally Capule 10, Anthony Sanoriego 7 and Erwin Manugat 6 points. Rene Bejarin paced SAK with a 20 markers.
After a not-so-bright performance during the initial stages of the tournament, the Vipers got their act together in time to play serious games, winning their first game ever in the league with their narrow defeat of the Bayan Dental squad. Despite fielding a full complement and enjoying a ceiling advantage with their twin towers in Jeff Espadero and Jayson Rodrigues and high-scoring trio Marvin Vidoya, Juancho Ang and Ricci Salazar didn’t always have their way against the plucky and smaller Vipers, who led them most of the way in the early going behind the derring-do of Magno Obaldo with help from Wilfredo Adorio, Rodrik Danga and Mike Figuero for a 34-32 first half lead in the day’s opening match of the Inter-Medical group.

Both squads finished the third quarter dead even at 43-43 before the hulking Obaldo started to assert himself in the paint, while Bryan, Raymond and Adorio took care of the perimeter while clamping down of defense en route to a tight 63-61 win at the buzzer. Obaldo led the way in scoring with 28 buckets while Adorio added 16, Bryan 12 and Raymond 9 points. Espedero scored 19 with Rodrigues adding 15 points points in Bayan Dental squad’s losing cause. The rampant ITHC squad barely broke sweat in their win over Mixers in game five, breaking the game after 36-23 first half, into a 55-42 bubble in the third and turned on the heat further in the fourth en route to a one-sided 80-58 win. Two ITHC hoteliers delivered double figures with Kenneth Najera making 28 and Marvin Gatuz 13 points. Alcantara and Dizon shot 12 apiece for the Mixers’ losing cause.
The Cardiac Center got double digit outputs from quarterbacks De La Rosa and Albert to lift them past PANIK to book a good position in the Inter-Medical group. De La Rosa and Albert knocked in 15 and 14 apiece with Caesar hitting 8, Albano and Caesar 6 points each. Ong and Queva scored 14 and 13 points in a losing effort for PANIK.

Heisco narrowly lost their second Inter-Company match up against the Safara squad in game seven. Safara built an early 61-56 cushion after the first three quarters of play and spent the rest of the game warding off a furious fight-back by the heavy engineering specialists. Mark Tadlas, Oscar Montemayor and Jeff Luague led scoring in the first quarter, while Arnel Magsimo and Noel took charge in the second to help build the 8-points cushion and the quartet combined to help hold off Heisco’s charge the rest of the way en route to the win. Montemayor shot 28 with Tadlas and Luague adding 18 and 11 apiece in Safara’s victory. Heisco had two players in double figures with Pacer making 21 and Petines 19 points.
The Brgy-Tropa squad were declared winner and awarded 20 points as their opponents, Gemini, failed to show up for their Open Group encounter. Similarly, Alfonso’s no-show handed Balik Islam in the 5’8 group a win by default with 20 points. The Mr. Baker squad were also a no-show in the scheduled clash against the Cools squad.

Martin Prats knocked in 14 markers with Sid Labiran adding 10 and the rest of the team did their respective chores in Matrix’s convincing win over Balleros in the first 5’8 group clash of the day. Balleros was led by Cesar Nemencio who shot 21 and Kevin Caro with 27 points.
JC Net bagged a win in the second 5’8 group match against Rated-PG, a result that signaled a return to their former winning ways after having lost their last match two weeks ago to Tropang-TH. The JC Net’s cliffhanger win over undermanned Rated-PG had the latter missing a couple of their high-scoring who are on holiday. But despite being shorthanded and the usually reliable Santiago having a quiet game, the rest of the team, notably Fedrigan and Acosta, stepped up to fill the slack, leading the score sheet all the way to the third quarter and almost pulled off the improbable but for JC Net’s lucky breaks in the final minutes that sent them trailing, but they still had every reason to hold their heads high even in defeat for playing their hearts out. Mel Calinagan and Peter Cruz led JC Net to the close win with 23 and 14 points each while Fedirigan and Santiago paced Rated-PG with 25 and 14 points apiece.

After their defeat of the JC Net squad last week, the rebounded Tropang-TH yet again added the Knights to their growing list of victims after bagging an 87-76 convincing win in the open group clash. Tropang-TH, using a swarming defense and a balanced scoring game anchored by James Galandez and the speedy backcourt tandem of Marlon Batino and Nino Canlas with Toti Catabay manning the post, Gimo and Jake on the wings, were on full throttle from the opening toss, racing to a 20-8 lead in the first two quarters of play and kept up the pressure the rest of the way to give the Knights a thorough trashing to clinch a the convincing win. James Galendez and Marlon Batino were the only two Tropang members in double figures with 21 and 12 points apiece. Lanky Maculencio paced the Knights with 17 points while Delmundo and Tadena chipped in 15 and 9 points each.
The Suns on the other hand, got 20 points from Irwin Paderon, 11 from Raffy Mantering and 9 points from Joel Martinis in their 73-58 defeat of the Exo Warriors in the Open Group and final game of the day. Exo Warriors were paced by Ramos who shot 21 points with Reyes adding 13.