Tristan Dominic Cabrera of Minglanilla drives to the basket in a game against Naga City Thursday night at the Cebu Coliseum.
If Minglanilla head coach Edito Salacut was to decide, he wouldn’t have wanted to replay the game against Naga City in the Governor’s Cup 2018 Inter-Cities/Municipalities Basketball Tournament last Thursday at the Cebu Coliseum.
But they did. And they won.
The defending champions pulled off a 76-72 victory over the Naga Electrifiers to advance to the quarterfinal round.
Salacut said he was hesitant at the idea of facing Naga again because of the team’s lack of time to practice.
He didn’t want to go to battle unprepared.
“We had very little time to train. Whenever we have practice, only four or five players would come to attend,” he said. “And our key player, Steve Nash Enriquez, has a very hectic schedule too.”
Still, his team managed to pull off the victory, with the National University-bound Enriquez leading the team with 22 points.
The game was a replay of their April 23 game at the Enan Chiong Sports Complex, which Naga won, 93-91, via a clutch three-point shot with 0.7 seconds by Justin Atilano.
The game was put under protest by Minglanilla after finding out that there were six players on the court in that final play.
After investigation, the match was ruled a “no contest” by the Governor’s Cup commissioners and the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission, which led to this replay.
Salacut was actually hoping organizers would give them the victory, and the last quarters slot that came with it, because of the violation of Naga.
“For my part, I never wanted to play today’s game. But the organizers as well as our mayor convinced me to do so,” he said. “I also wanted to protect our city’s name, considering that we were last season’s champion.”
Now that the controversial game is settled, Salacut and his team is looking forward to the task at hand, which is to get past the quarterfinal round.
Their first foe in the single round-robin quarters will be Sibonga on June 10 at the Sibonga Municipal Gym.
Meanwhile, Medellin improved to 2-0 (win-loss) in the quarterfinals by beating Balamban, 97-82, in the Cluster B action held at the Medellin covered court last Thursday.
In the other Cluster B match, Bantayan Island logged its first win by edging Tuburan, 103-93.
At the Barili municipal gym, Barili overwhelmed the hapless Ginatilan squad, 107-58, to secure its first win in Cluster D action. In the other cluster D match, Dumanjug defeated Alegria, 77-63, to even up its record at 1-1. /with a report from Glendale Rosal
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