TALISAY City is now a win away from hoisting the championship of the 1st Samsam Gullas Cup as they edged Minglanilla, 66-63, in Game One of their best-of-three finals series on Friday night at the Talisay City Sports Complex.
Windzel Granada came out of nowhere and sparked Talisay’s charge with a near double-double of eight points and 17 rebounds on top of a steal and a block. For his efforts, Granada was adjudged the Best Player of the Game.
Former Adamson Baby Falcon Denzel Sabroso led the victors in scoring with 18 points spiked by three triples along with three boards, four assists and three steals.
Talisay got off to a 23-12 start after the opening period but Minglanilla fought to trim it down to two, 32-34, at halftime. Talisay surged ahead by five heading to the last canto and held off repeated attempts by Minglanilla to overtake them, and hang on for the series-opening win.
Jhiey Paraldo shot only 6-of-17 from the field but managed to put up 13 markers and six rebounds. Richmon Lapinid also submitted a double-double of 11 points and 14 rebounds.
Talisay was gunning for the title as of press time in Game Two over at the Minglanilla Sports Complex.
Archie Pepito paced Minglanilla with 19 points while Mel Barquin had 11. The league’s leading scorer, Marc Nebril, was a marked man on defense all game long and was held down to just four points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field.
The team’s other standout, Jiesel Tarrosa, flirted with a double-double of nine points and 10 boards but committed a whopping eight turnovers.
In the battle for third place, San Fernando emerged victorious over Carcar, 92-82.