Angola bludgeons RP team

As expected, the Philippine team was beaten black and blue by the high-flying Angola squad, 78-90, on a day Sunkist-UST’s Alex Compton reaffirmed his status as the league’s deadliest shooter yesterday in the Showcase of the PBL Platinum Cup at the Pasig Sports Center.

Compton, who made his intention to play in the pro league next year, tallied 15 points to beat three other finalists, including Welcoat’s celebrated hitman James Yap, in the 3-point shootout. Yap obviously lost his steam following an impressive game with the Nationals early in the day.

Jemal Vizcarra, also of Sunkist-UST, finished second (12 points) while Viva-FEU’s Jeff Napa wound up third with 12. Yap could do no more than 10 points.

But the day’s biggest win was produced by Fash Liquid’s JC Intal who dethroned Blustar’s KG Canaleta by coming up with a jaw-dropping one-handed dunk — a la-Vince Carter to win the slam dunk contest.

The feat of the 6-foot-5 Intal saw the crowd breaking into thunderous applause in approval. He earned 49 of 50 points for that performance.

Blustar’s peppery guard Lou Gatumbato also underlined his reputation as the league’s quickest player when he ruled the slalom event for the second straight year.

He beat Fash Liquid Detergent’s LA Tenorio in the finals. The duo of Christopher Baluyot and Jigger Saniel of Montana Pawnshop ruled the 2-ball competition by beating Fash’s Larry Fonacier and Wesley Gonzales, 68-66.

Still, coach Aric del Rosario was quite impressed with the performance of his boys, saying: "It’s was a good tune-up match for us, we learned so many lessons from this exhibition game."

It was the first defeat by the Nationals in four exhibition matches — they beat three PBL teams — but Del Rosario is still convinced his team is ready to defend its SEA Games title in Vietnam which starts next week. The Nationals are leaving on Tuesday.

Exploiting their height advantage to the hilt and dazzling the crowd with their fluid running game, the Angolans held the Nationals to just 10 points in the third quarter while exploding for 16 points behind the gutsy efforts of Walter Da Costa, Gerson Monteiro and Eduardo Mingas to break the game wide open.

The Nationals did play well but the athleticism of the Angolans was simply too much for the SEA Games-bound RP squad to overcome as they were reduced to mere spectators early in the fourth quarter where the visitors made one spectacular play after another to post a commanding 68-48 lead.

Even the second stringers of Angola had a field day as they scored from almost all angles that left the Nationals huffing and puffing. The Angolans made only 35-of-76 attempts from the field but had 20 fastbreak points and 14 more second chance points as they dominated both ends of the court.

The Nationals were forced to shoot from afar but had little success — except for Yap.

Yap topscored for the Nationals with 22 points which he highlighted by completing a rare four-point play midway in the fourth quarter. He was 4-for-5 from the 3-point zone while Celino Cruz added four treys, three of them in the first half.

Even Angolan coach Raul Duarte was impressed with the shooting prowess of the 23-year-old Bacolod City native, saying: "He’s a dependable shooter."

Meantime, Fash Liquid battles Sunkist-UST while Welcoat collides with ICTSI-La Salle at the start of the second round eliminations at the San Juan gym.