General Santos – Nigerian Sam Ekwe came up with another monster game, scoring 22 points and grabbing 22 rebounds as he powered the Trace Laguna Stallions over the host MP GenSan Warriors, 70-61, while the Ilocos Sur Bravehearts squandered a big lead but recovered in time to beat the Edding Zanorte Babami, 74-60, and arrange a GenSan leg finals showdown in the Smart-Liga Pilipinas Conference II at the Lagao gym.
Ekwe, the former two-time NCAA MVP, scored 10 of his game high production in the third period as he expanded a four-point halftime lead to 56-43 in favor of the Stallions.
With the victory Laguna swept all its leg elimination assignments and got additional incentive points in the tournament rankings.
After forward John Villaver gave Laguna its biggest lead at 61-46 at the start of the fourth, GenSan gamely battled back against the bigger, taller and more experienced Trace Laguna with Jaypee Locsin, Jasper Callo and John Gonzaga combining in a 12-0 run to trim the lead to 61-58 with 4:05 remaining in the game.
But Ekwe hit a turnaround jumper and guard Ricky Ricafuente scored back-to-back triples to put the Stallions unassailably ahead, 68-58.
In addition to his 22-22 performance, his second double-double in the regional league sponsored by Smart, Molten, Accel, Nature’s Spring, Burlington, ML Kwarta Padala and Air 21, Ekwe shot 48 percent from the field, had one assist and four shotblocks, including one against Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao.
Pacquiao logged two points, two rebounds and one assist in 11 minutes of action.