Caloocan and Manila bested separate rivals to stay within striking distance of the North Division leaders while Solid San Juan-Big Chill notched a second straight win to move up to solo second in the South Division in Metro League Open basketball tournament action Tuesday at the Parañaque Sports Hall.
The Supremos All-Star of head coach Rensy Bajar won their third straight game with a 102-92 drubbing of host Parañaque while the All-Stars, led by 11-season PBA veteran Joseph Yeo, routed Taguig,107-90, in the tournament organized by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and supported by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Solid San Juan used a 14-0 start in the game to beat still-winless Marikina, 98-87, to improve to 2-2, just half a game behind Pateros’ 2-1 mark in the South Division of this tourney which has “mobile app ng bayan” Barangay 143 as presentor, Spalding as the official ball and Team Rebel Sports as official outfitter.
Five Caloocan players, led by MJ Enriquez and Kris Torrado, came through with solid performances with the former, who was named as Barangay 143 “Three-Point Shooter” of the Game, topscoring with 18 points built around four triples and the latter, chosen as the World Balance “Best Player of the Game”, finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Gwayne Capacio led the Green Berets with 25 markers.
In the second game, Rizaldy Corpuz led San Juan with 21 points, three rebounds and three assists, while Joshua Saret had 16 points, nine assists and three rebounds.
John Paul Rosopa contributed 13 points, eight rebounds and four rebounds.
Francis Munsayac scored 31 points, five assists and four rebounds and Irvin Mendoza tallied 18 points and six rebounds in Marikina’s losing effort.
Yeo, easily one of the more popular players in the 10-team tournament which also has Synergy 88, San Miguel Corp., World Balance, Frabelle Foods, Summit Mineral Water, Alco Plus, Gerry’s Grill, Excellent Noodles, glitter.ph, SM Supermalls and Nature’s Spring as major sponsors, came through with a double-double effort of 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the All Stars to victory.
