Laguna Stallions rule Liga GenSan leg

GEN. SANTOS CITY – Trace Laguna Stallions reeled from Sam Ekwe’s early foul trouble but claimed the win as the Ilocos Sur Bravehearts missed a shot at endgame for a 66-62 victory at the close of the GenSan leg of the Smart-Liga Pilipinas Conference II at the Lagao Gym Saturday.

Laguna lost the battle of the boards, 35-41, for the first time in the tourney, but the Stallions escaped with the win as Christian Cabatu missed an open three-point attempt.

With the win, Trace Laguna garnered a total of 15 tournament ranking points on the strength of 10 points for its first place finish and five points for the sweep of its three-game   elimination assignments to lead the tour phase of the regional based league sponsored by Smart, Molten, Accel, Nature’s Spring, Burlington, ML Kwarta Padala and Air 21.

“This is a special win for us. We challenged the whole team to step up after Sam got into foul trouble and they did. Now we can build on this victory,” said Stallions coach Nomar Isla.

With Ekwe riding the bench and the Stallions up at the half 37-32, Nat Cruz, Chris Baluyot and Ismael Junio presided over a 7-0 Laguna run at the start of the third period to wrest the lead at 39-37.

The game remained tight as they battled through 13 lead changes and 10 deadlocks with the Stallions keeping a 50-48 edge entering the fourth quarter.

Making up for lost time, Ekwe, the former two time NCAA MVP, took over, scoring on a turnaround jumper and blocking three shots as the Stallions raced to a 57-50 lead with 6:01 left in the game.

Ilocos Sur fought back with nine unanswered points to take the lead at 59-57 with 3:02 to play but Ekwe came up with putback off Robert Sanz’s miss to force the last deadlock at 59.

Ekwe made another jumpshot for a 61-59 Stallions’ advantage. The Nigerian then swatted two shots and forced an offensive foul on Cruz. Sanz then made two free throws of a Baluyot foul to give the Stallions a 63-59 lead with 28 seconds remaining in the contest.