THE SUPPORTSAVE Dragons and the Telstra Boomerangs dispatched their respective semifinal opponents to arrange a championship showdown in the EVO League of the 11th City Sports Club-Cebu (CSC-C) E-League for Basketball last Sunday at the CSC-C Gym.
The number-one seed Dragons hacked out a 75-66 win over the fourth-ranked Author Solutions Inc. (ASI) Hardbacks, while the third-seeded Boomerangs sent the number-two squad Kyocera Frontiers packing with a 68-58 decision.
Supportsave and Telstra swept the two best-of-three semifinal series, 2-0, and will face each other in another race-to-two battle for the EVO League crown.
The champion in the EVO League will then mix it up in the Elite Classic playoffs, where it will play the wildcard qualifier Sykes Pioneers. Winner in that match will play the twice-to-beat Lexmark Stallions in the first round of playoffs in Elite Classic.
Duplicating their 77-70 Game 1 triumph, the Dragons drew another solid game from Niño Belande, who piled up 20 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block. Belande tallied 32 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three steals in their Game 1 victory.
Armalon Fernandez fired 18 points and Jonas Panerio scored 13 for the Hardbacks, who, despite bowing out, achieved some sort of an accomplishment this season after making it to the semifinals for the first time.
Sam Jordan Hermosa led the Boomerangs with 23 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, four blocked shots and three steals.