KAPANGAN, Benguet – Two big men, two backcourt players all had a field day as they helped Tublay claw back from a 10 – point deficit early in the game to eke a 91-82 victory over a highly favored Kabayan in the Cong. Eric Go Yap Congressional Cup – Men’s Basketball League at the Tuding barangay gym here Saturday.
On his second game, King Pascual became the glue that bond a Tublay squad missing its top man, Nicanor Menzi Jr. to record one of the bigger upsets in the event backed by Rep. Yap, the ACT CIS party list, the office of Gov. Melchor Diclas and the Media for Sports Development.
Pascual scored 18 points while he hauled seven boards, eight assists, four steals and a block in a well-rounded game for Tublay’s second win in five starts.
Arjun Dagwasi actually led Tublay with 24 points, five of which from the rainbow country, as a result when the team got its composure late in the first canto. From there, Tublay never trailed until the buzzer.
Radjis Andres had a double-double, 14 points and 11 boards, while one of the smallest Tublay men, Prado Domerez added 13 markers
Four men who made life miserable for Kabayan, which won the past two games after giving La Trinidad a big scare during the opener.
Pascua said that he would love burying the mistakes of the Sablan debacle where it lost to the home team when they failed to gel on his debut.
“There were too many options and we just could not gel,” he said of that 48-50 loss to Sablan.
Once Tublay took the lead at the end of the first quarter with a Dagwasi trey, Kabayan all but crumbled like a sandcastle relentlessly pounded by the seawater.
Tublay was up just by two, 40-38, at halftime. By the end of the third quarter, it was up by 10, 66-56 when Kabayan lost two of its top players – Johnny Pascua and Kyle Naisod.
Pascua was hit just below his ribs that saw him crumpled to the floor for almost five minutes and had to be taken out, while Naisod sprained his left foot. Pascua never reported back, while Naisod had to sit out the remaining of the third canto.
Naisod led all Kabayan scorers with 21 points, while pulling down six rebounds and dished out an assist. Teofilo Albert had 17 points and 11 assists for a double-double while pulling down six boards, two steals and a block, while big man Roger Lee Torren carried the big load and chalked down 16 points.
Kabayan fell to sixth spot with a 2-2 win-loss slate, just behind Atok which won earlier over Bakun, 98-86, for a 2-1 slate.
Meanwhile, Kapangan, which hopes to bounce back from a Buguias upset last Saturday, was leading Bokod, 27-23, at the end of the first canto as of this writing. Bokod is hoping to join Itogon and La Trinidad atop the standing at 4-0.
