Sta. Lucia, Euro-Med enter PCBL semis

MANILA, Philippines – Sta. Lucia Realty and Euro-Med subdued their respective foes Wednesday night at the Marikina Sports Center to advance to the semifinal round of the PCBL Chairman’s Cup.

The Realtors banked on their solid local production and good defensive game plan on ex-pro Bayron Villarias to hammer out an 80-73 win over Biyaheng SCTEX.

Euro-Med got a breakout performance from Mike Parala, who had 15 points and six rebounds and helped his team to a 68-52 whipping of Foton in the other game.

Sta. Lucia and Euro-Med will join early qualifiers Mighty Sports and Jumbo Plastic in the Final Four, which will begin on Sunday at the Malolos Sports and Convention Center.

Behind a balance offensive attack, the Realtors were able to score their second straight win over Biyaheng SCTEX in their best-of-three quarterfinal series of this event supported by Hahn Manila, Spalding, LGR, During’s Barbeque and Restaurant, Ambucore and Leatherman.

Mainstays Jhaps Bautista finished with 21 points while Kent Salado contributed 13, but the Realtors also got huge significant contributions from Paolo Javelona, Jett Vidal and Wowie Escosio to finally put away SCTEX.

Javelona, Vidal and Escosio chipped in eight points apiece.

“Yung mga bata nag-step up, gusto talagang manalo,” said Sta. Lucia coach Ogie Gumatay. “Everybody stepped up, lahat nagkaroon ng playing time, kaya nakuha namin.”

As expected, Raul Soyud paced SCTEX with a monster performance of 28 points and 16 rebounds, but Sta. Lucia was able to ground Villarias, who was limited to only five points, while import Steve Akomo could only produce six markers.

Bautista triggered Sta. Lucia’s breakaway in the third quarter, sparking the Realtors’ 10-0 run and giving his team its first sizeable lead, 49-41.

Camasura’s assist on Nico Bangga in the 4:01 mark gave Sta. Lucia its biggest lead of the game, 69-58, and the Realtors were never seriously threatened form there.

The scores:

First game

STA LUCIA (80) – Bautista 21, Salado 13, Bangga 12, Escosio 8, Vidal 8, Javelona 8, Camasura 5, Ilagan 4, Sanjo 1, Castanarez 0, Jamito 0.

BIYAHENG SCTEX (73) – Soyud 28, Pangilinan 11, Sumalinog 9, Calomot 8, Akomo 6, Villarias 5, Batino 4, Vitug 2, Del Rosario 0, Reyes 0.

Quarterscores: 18-16, 37-37, 54-50, 80-73.    

Second game

EURO-MED (68) – Parala 15, Almario 10, Custodio 10, Salamat 6, Alvarez 6, Tajonera 6, Adeogun 4, Capacio 4, Galanza 3, Gil 2, Poligrates 2, Saitanan 0.

FOTON (52) – Hernandez 13, Reyes 11, Nacpil 9, Gomez 5, Enriquez 4, Moraga 3, Ablaza 3, Mallari 2, Rivera 2, Penaflor 0, Ouattara 0.

Quarterscores: 20-15, 33-28, 45-35, 68-52.