Cebu trounces MisOr for 2nd leg crown in PBL, Liga joint tourney

ML Kwarta Padala-Cebu stretched its amazing run to 29 wins to rule the sixth leg of the Tournament of the Philippines (TOP) on Friday night at the New Cebu City Coliseum. Former pro Bruce Dacia had another dazzling performance to power Cebu to a 78-70 win over bitter-rival Misamis Oriental and claim their second leg crown in the event jointly organized by the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) and Liga Pilipinas.

"I told my players that we can lose a game but not in our home court. This is some sort of a payback because Misamis embarrassed us here for the second conference title of the Liga Pilipinas," said a jubilant coach Raul “Yayoy" Alcoseba. Cebu’s last lost against Misamis was during Liga’s third conference last year. After that the Niños won 21 straight games and won the Liga crown. Mandaue, meanwhile, got back at Taguig for a 106-99 triumph to claim the third place honors. Veteran guards Warren Ybañez and Mark Magsumbol also shone for the Niños, who also swept the opening leg in Manila. Ybañez and Magsumbol came through with clutch plays that kept the Meteors of Misamis Oriental Gov. Oscar Moreno at bay. Ybanez finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, five steals and an assist. Mark Andaya took the scoring cudgels for the Meteors as the team’s top guns Neil Raneses and former UAAP scoring champion Patrick Cabahug struggled offensively in the face of Cebu’s sticky defense. Andaya finished with 12 points while Raneses and Cabahug was held to a combined 14 points. – JVP, GMANews.TV