Montana trips ICTSI; John-O wins

A highly-spirited Montana Jewels repulsed ICTSI’s rally down the final two minutes and escaped with a 60-56 victory yesterday in the Sunkist-PBL 2003 Unity Cup at the San Juan Gym.

Gary David topped with 19 points and five rebounds as the Jewelers controlled the game throughout to tie idle Viva Mineral Water in the VisMin group on similar 2-3 cards.

The ICTSI Archers suffered their third setback in five games.

John-O snapped Hapee’s win run at five as it pulled off a 71-68 overtime win in the other game.

Ricky Calimag and Celino Cruz scored 12 points apiece for John-O, which moved up to second with a 4-1 mark.

Montana was surprisingly aggressive as it dominated the boards, 40-30, earned 12 points on offensive rebounds and another 12 points on fastbreaks as it took an early 14-7 first quarter lead and never looked back from then.

They led as many as 11 at 52-41, 8:54 remaining in the final period.

It was then when ICTSI finally got into the right groove. Edrick Ferrer, who paced the Archers with 18 points including six triples, went hot with two treys that ignited a rousing 14-4 rally while a basket by Mark Cardona and a quick follow up by Manny Ramos trimmed the gap down to 55-56, with 2:03 left.

David fired a three-point shot that eased the pressure on the Jewelers, 59-55, but Ramos split his charities off Marlon Basco to keep the ICTSI Archers within distance, 56-59, with 42.2 seconds to go.

But ICTSI’s miseries compounded in the ensuing play. Cardona miss a crucial attempt while a traveling violation by Joachim Thoss gave possession back to Montana in the final 40.6 seconds.

Later, Thoss lost grip of the ball after a rebound for Montana to keep the ball.

They had to give up five fouls, the last by Ferrer on Jon Dan Salvador who split his freethrows to seal the final tally with 16.4 seconds to go.

In the dying seconds, it took time for Ferrer to find a perfect spot for another trey. But when he made his attempt, Basco pulled a big block thus ending all hopes for the ICTSI Archers.

Aside from Ferrer, only Ramos, Cardona and Dacia scored significantly as the rest either scored two or nothing.

Ramos delivered 15 points and a block while Cardona and Dacia added 10 and nine points respectively.