Bacolod, Cebu fives dispute NBTC crown

BACOLOD—Purefoods TJ Hotdog-St. John’s Institute and Purefoods TJ Hotdog-Cebu rolled past separate rivals yesterday to forge a championship duel in the Seaoil NBTC Elite League National Finals at theWest Negros University gym here.

Cheered wildly by the home crowd, St. John’s, runner-up in the Bacolod eliminations, used a fiery start to coast to an 88-57 victory over Magnolia Frozen Delights-Iloilo to reach the finals opposite the Cebuanos.

Purefoods-Cebu blasted San Mig Coffee-Cavite, 82-42.

Kib Montalbo, one of the top high school players here, teamed up with reed-thin center Jan Toral in an 18-0 run to end the opening quarter.

All of Toral’s game-high 15 points came in the opening period on putbacks and fastbreak layups set up by Montalbo.

With the passerelle format being followed, teams needed to field different quintets in each of the first three periods and St. John’s sustained its strong effort to keep the Ilonggos at bay.

Unlimited substitutions are only applied in the fourth quarter, but by the time the Bacolod duo returned for the final period, St. John’s was already beyond recall at 69-43.

The Cebuanos shocked the Caviteños with a stifling press to open the first five minutes of the game, while drawing firepower from Patrick Nigel Go, who had eight points to lift his team to an early double-digit cushion, 26-9.

It was smooth sailing from there as Rendell Senining and Dawn Hynric Ochea picked up from where Go left off in the second and third periods to seal the blowout win.

Cebu’s chances of making the next round looked dim after it lost to San Mig Coffee-WNU, 76-80. But the Cebuanos got a break when WNU lost to Monterey Meat Shop-Cagayan de Oro, 95-96, late Tuesday.