Lucky 9 for MJAS-Talisay Aquastars

CEBU, Philippines — It seems that there’s no stopping MJAS Zenith-Talisay City Aquastars from shredding down their opponents one after the other.

Their most latest victim, the Warriors of Dumaguete City.

Drawing stellar performances from do-it-all forward Jaymar Gimpanyan and big man Jhaymo Eguilos, the Aquastars whacked Dumaguete, 77-66, to keep their unbeaten record intact in the Visayas leg of the inaugural

Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas Vismin Super Cup season last Tuesday night at the Alcantara Civic Center in Alcantara town southwest of Cebu.

Gimpayan produced a solid double-double show of 14 points and 14 rebounds spiced with three assists, a block, and a steal, while Eguilos, despite playing in limited minutes, was highly productive with 11 points, seven boards, two assists, and two steals as the Aquastars assured themselves of an outright semifinal berth.

The Aquastars now look to complete a clean sweep of the double round robin elimination round with only the ARQ Builders Lapu-Lapu City standing in their way today, April 29, at 3 p.m.

“Hindi namin iniisip yung sweep. One game at a time pa rin yung approach namin,” said Aquastars head coach Aldrin Morante.

MJAS-Talisay led by only three after the first period, 16-13, but Egie Boy Mojica, Darrell Menina, and Allan Santos sparked a blistering 18-3 rally to vault the Aquastars to a comfortable 18-point advantage, 34-16, entering the locker room.

It was an all-MJAS Talisay show from thereon, with the Aquastars building up as high as 29 points lead 

before Dumaguete posted a 28-13 scoring edge in the final frame to make the final tally a more respectable one.

“I’d like to commend everyone for this win as we again no one played more than twenty minutes,” said Morante. “Malaking bagay yung fresh legs para sa amin since ang next namin is ARQ na kumpleto na on Thursday.”

Ronald Roy led Dumaguete with 17 points spiked with five triples. However, the rest of the team shot poorly from the field, making just 30 percent of their attempts.

The Warriors’ vaunted backcourt of Jaybie Mantilla and James Regalado struggled to make their shots, combining to miss 21 of their 26 shots. Mark Doligon was just as terrible, missing 12 of his 15 attempts.