Red marches to finals

MAYOR RODY-INDAY SARA ALL-MEDIA CAGEFEST

Red marches to finals


Color it Red.

Team Red pressed the red button early wary of another possible upset, making sure this one would not go away like the last time as it coasted to a 99-86 win over the reversal-conscious Team White and marched to the finals of the Mayor Rody-Inday Sara All-Media basketball tournament at the Almendras Gym.

The Reds’ Triple Threat troika of Rico Biliran, Morly Morata and Trevor “Inday Tanini” Quillano were almost merciless as they made up for a lackluster performance in the 93-98 loss to the same team last week. The burly Biliran came through with a 34-point explosion punctuated with six triples while Morata and Quillano each had 23.

There was no déjà vu for the Whites who had no answer to the Reds’ red-hot offensive. Percy Penoliar sizzled with 32 markers but it was not enough to reverse the fortunes of the Whites who were looking for another upset win that could shove them into the finals of this tournament sponsored by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Vice Mayor Inday Sara Duterte.

The Reds took a 54-36 lead at the lemontime break and kept that cushion until the Whites came tantalizingly close early in the fourth when they cut the deficit to 7. But that was the nearest the Whites could get as the Reds painted the area beyond the arc with booming triple conversions.

Reds’ playing coach Dennis Lazo attributed the win to their heads up play and better field goal shooting. “Naninuod na jud mi kay dili namo gusto mahitabo na kaduha mi straight mapildi,” the Bombo Radyo anchor said.

The Reds will face Team Black in the finals on Sunday set at 2:30 pm while the Whites will play Team Green for third place at 1:00 pm.

The champion will receive a cash kitty of P25,000 while the losing finalist will take home P15,000. The third placer gets P10,000 and the fourth placer will get P5,000.
Meantime, Christopher ‘Bong” Go, executive assistant of the Mayor, expressed his appreciation to the participating media practitioners in the three-month long tournament. “We are grateful to the media for taking part. Not only did they show that they are also good players, they also exhibited tremendous sportsmanship and camaraderie.”

The All-Media cagefest is just one among the many sectoral sports competitions organized by the city government through the CMO-City Sports Development Division under the stewardship of Go.(NJB-City Sports)