Nueva Ecija came out of the halftime break with a big fighting heart to humble a listless Surigao squad with a 99-91 victory yesterday at the Urios Gym in Butuan city as the 2000 MBA Fedex Cup reached its second week of competition.
Willie Miller and Eric Gascon provided the stirring offensives for the Patriots, combining for a total of 36 points to hand Nueva Ecija coach Nemie Villegas, who replaced Joe Lipa in the pre-season, his first win in two outings.
The Patriots dropped a 88-95 decision to the Cagayan de Oro Amigos at the RMC Gym last week.
On the other hand, Nueva Ecija's win spoiled the debut of Jimmy Mariano, the new mentor of Surigao which paid its franchise fee amounting to P3 million to the league last Monday
The high-flying Gascon, who played first for the Pampanga Dragons in the MBA's maiden season in 1998, took care of the scoring chores for the Patriots in the first half as he poured in 12 markers.
Down, 52-55, after the break, the Patriots threw a defensive blanket on the Warriors that held the latter to just 12 points in the third period and went on to post a 74-67 lead with a full quarter remaining.
Aldrich Jareño scored five of Surigao's first nine points in the final canto in a heated 9-6 exchange that pushed home team to within four points , 76-80, before Miller, who was sidelined in the latter part of the Patriots' campaign last year because of an elbow injury, put on the heat in the homestretch, scoring nine of his 19 points in the stretch for the win. -