By Jerome Lagunzad
Games Today
(Bulacan Capitol Gymnasium)
7 p.m. — Muntinlupa vs Navotas
9 p.m. — Parañaque vs Bulacan
Host Batangas City and Valenzuela scored contrasting victories on Tuesday night and moved closer towards advancing to the Final Four of the 2018 Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Anta Rajah Cup.
Egged on by a partisan crowd inside the Batangas City Coliseum, the top-ranked Athletics jumped the gun on the eighth-seeded Bataan Defenders and sustained their attack on the way to an 88-75 win in the opener of their best-of-three quarterfinals series.
Former pro Val Acuña proved he has fully recovered from a bout with flu as he drilled in nine of his 16 points in the opening period while Teytey Teodoro, Mon Rogado and Bong Quinto added at least 11 points each, showcasing Batangas City’s depth and firepower anew.
It was the fourth straight win on their home court for the Athletics, who can eliminate the Defenders from contention with a repeat win in Game 2 on Saturday at the Valenzuela Astrodome.
Batangas City coach Mac Tan, however, is bracing himself for an expected fightback from Bataan.
“I told them hindi pa tapos ito. The most difficult thing to do is to close out the series,” he said.
Sharing the day’s spotlight with the Athletics were the Classic, who fought back from 15 points down in the first half and stunned the Quezon City Capitals in the stretch for a 96-89 victory.
Rocky Acidre finished with 21 points while Adrian Celada and Krentz Carlos added 12 points each for the fourth-seeded Valenzuela, which exploded for 58 points in the second half.
Big man Jan Collado had a team-high 19 points while Gian Abrigo hauled down 14 rebounds but the fifth-ranked Quezon City sorely missed the stability from top guard Andoy Estrella who was sidelined by an injury.
Many-time PBA scoring champion Gary David led all scorers with 24 points while James Castro and Al Carlos scored 12 points apiece that all went down the drain with Bataan’s setback.
