Ferdinand Lusdoc of the Cebu Landmasters-Bogo City drives to the basket in this bit of Sinulog Cup action at the Cebu Coliseum.
CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO
Ebona putback shoves Cebu Landmasters to Sinulog Cup finals
Games today:
Cebu Coliseum
(For Third Place)
4 p.m. – UC-M. Lhuillier vs USJ-R-May Abohan
(Finals)
6 p.m. – Marinerong Pilipino vs Cebu Landmasters
Barkley Ebona converted a putback with 0.6 of a second remaining to push the Cebu Landmasters-Bogo City to a heart-pounding 77-76 victory over PBA D-League squad Marinerong Pilipino Skippers in the final game of the elimination round in the Cebu City Sinulog Cup Basketball Invitational yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.
The win completed a sweep of the elims for the Landmasters as they finished with a 4-0 win-loss record for a seat in the finals.
In the first game, the University of Cebu-M. Lhuillier came away with a 71-57 victory over the University of San Jose-Recoletos-May Abohan.
The Skippers dropped to 2-2 and into a three-way tie with the UC-M. Lhuillier and the USJ-R-May Abohan.
But the Skippers notched the other ticket to the finals as they came away with the superior goal difference of +7. UC was the closest to them with a +6.
The Landmasters started off firing on all cylinders and led by as many as 22, 48-26, late in the first half.
But the Skippers got their act together and slowly chipped away at the deficit before finally grabbing the driver’s seat, 76-75, after a three-pointer from Kyle Toth with 52 seconds left.
The Landmasters then turned the ball over as Jojo Tangkay lost handle on his drive to the rack, the rock ending up in the hands of Skippers’ guard Mike Ayonayon.
But the Skippers failed to take advantage as John Lopez threw the ball away on the inbound, giving possession back to the Landmasters with just 15.3 seconds remaining.
On their offensive, the Landmasters again got the ball to Tangkay, who passed it down to John Saycon for layup try.
Saycon missed but Ebona grabbed the offensive rebound, went up and missed, got it back again and banked in the game-winning bucket with just 0.6 of a second left.
With no timeouts left, the Skippers got the ball to Gab Banal, who wasn’t able to get it off as time expired.
Ferdinand Lusdoc and William McAloney each had 12 points for the Landmasters while Ebona had 10 points and seven boards.
Cameroonian forward Frederick Elombe bounced back from his foul-plagued outing on Thursday in a huge way, tallying 18 points, 18 rebounds and five assists for UC-M. Lhuillier.
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