Harbour clips Hapee, nears title

Harbour Centre moved into the threshold of a second straight PBL championship, overhauling a 20-point deficit to turn back Hapee Toothpaste-PCU, 63-61, in the PBL Silver Cup at the Emilio Aguinaldo College Gym yesterday.

Chico Lanete fired 20 points he highlighted with a tough baseline jumper and an open triple down the stretch as the Port Masters came back behind a tough defense in the last four minutes of the contest which Hapee dominated majority of the way.

"That’s what I keep on saying, if Chico plays well, the team follows," said Harbour coach Jorge Gallent, on the edge of steering the Mikee Romero-owned franchise to a back-to-back title romp as Harbour seized a 2-0 lead.

Harbour, which trounced Hapee in the series opener, 84-80, last Tuesday, guns for the clincher tomorrow at The Arena in San Juan. Games 4 and 5, if necessary, are set on Tuesday and Thursday.

But while Lanete shone in offense, defense proved to be the key to the Port Masters’ stirring fightback as they battled back from as many as 20 points in the first quarter by limiting the Teeth Masters to a season-low three points in the final period.

Jason Castro came away with 16 points this time after being shackled in Game One but Hapee’s top gun failed to get the job done in the final quarter that hastened the Lamoiyan-owned squad’s downfall.

"We started out bad but we came back in the second half, our defense was also great in the fourth quarter," said Gallent.

Bad breaks and injuries also slowed down Hapee-PCU.

After Harbour’s Allan Gamboa muffed a wide-open lay-up that would have sealed it for the Port Masters, Hapee-PCU got 9.6 seconds to send the game into overtime or win it from the three-point range. But Mark Moreno’s triple from the baseline was way off and Beau Belga missed an easy putback as time expired.

"I guess we’re lucky, maybe the game was just really ours," Gallent said.