Bayabas stopped Lower Mangga’s running game to pull a convincing 70-56 victory and win the championship of the inter-sitio basketball tournament of barangay Zapatera at the Sacred Heart gym.
Sitio Bayabas’ restricting defense settled the issue right at the first quarter with a 30-12 advantage.
Except in the early minutes of the second quarter, where Lower Mangga rallied to move within 30-24, Bayabas was in command and dictated the game’s tempo.
Lower Mangga only tasted the lead, 2-0, from a lay-up after the opening tip-off.
After two quarters, Bayabas had ripped the game wide open, 41-29.
“We were surprised that Lower Mangga didn’t run as they would usually do. They are known as a run and gun team, but this time, we outran them,” said Allan Barrita of Team Bayabas.
Lower Mangga tried a different strategy midway in the third period by dropping the ball to the shaded area. Bayabas, however, simply stopped the play by clogging the middle with a 2-1-2 zone defense.
“We have played them before and we know that their point guard likes to drop pass to his teammates under the basket so we just tightened our defense,” explained Raray Dakay, a mainstay of Sitio Bayabas.
Bayabas intercepted several passes to the paint that it converted into easy breakaway baskets to enjoy its biggest lead, 56-33, after the third canto.
Bayabas put the game beyond reach in final quarter with a 66-49 cushion.
Lower Mangga tried in vain to stop the clock by fouling and put Bayabas on the line in the last three minutes but the ploy backfired as Bayabas wisely got the ball to its better free throw shooters.
Allan Barrita scored 20 points while Raray Dakkay had 15 points for Bayabas. Lower Mangga’s Capati scored 23 points with Palang adding 10 points. With their impressive performance, the organizers declared Barrita and Capati as co-MVPs of the tournament and Dakkay as the “Most Sportsmanlike Player” during the players’ night.
Barangay councilor Boy Cagalitan organized the event with the purpose of discovering new talents for Zapatera’s basketball team to the inter-barangay competition slated later. Joel Sadaya, Soling Yap, Pepe Dela Cerna, Tata Manlunas, Jun Tan and May Aldemita supported the tournament.