JEDDAH, 13 June 2003 — Teams in the 3rd Danube Inter-Color Basketball Tournament are slugging it out tooth and nail to make it to the semifinals round as the eliminations round draws to a close at the Albilad Hotel’s Basketball Court here. With one round left in the eliminations, Danube Admin-Snickers and Danube 1-Fruto already booked their tickets to the semis, leaving the other teams hotly contesting the two remaining seats.
Danube Admin-Snickers maintained its immaculate record by downing Danube 4-Mcvities, 68-60. Snickers played their best to notch their 5th win without a loss. Ruen Villegas, who scored 14 points and dished out 6 assists, was adjudged the best player of the game. Though Ruen was limited to 14 points, others stepped in to give him support. Bbong Faeldonia and Ramil Martin each scored 14 points while Boyet Valenzuela, Ricky Dizon, Abet Dalag and Joel Valiente had a 21 points combined output. John Garcia controlled the board with 12 rebounds and also contributed 5 points. Danube 4-Mcvities which absorbed its 3rd loss in 5 outings was led by Mike Bendicio who tallied a double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds. Only Bobot Ibesa assisted him, scoring in double digits with 13 points. The loss dampened the bid of the Mcvities for an outright semifinals berth.
Meanwhile, Danube 1-Fruto too made the grade with a rout of Danube 2-Albilad-Nouri 109-74. Smarting from its 0-2 record early in the elimination, playing coach Norie Santiago and Fruto fought their way up the leaderboard, winning 4 games in succession. They were led by Bruce Banaag who set a new record of 11 triples erasing the 8 triples earlier set by Willy Cartajena. He finished with 40 points, a career high, for another best player of the game award.
Joining him in the scoring foray were Lito Llave with 23 points, Junjun Llave, Rodney Gregorio and Anthony Recilla with 13, 11 and 8 points apiece. Rey Torres again controlled the board with 16 rebounds while Dondon Gutierrez dished out 7 assists. Danube 2-Albilad-Nouri, which closed its campaign without a victory, was paced by Jeff Marzan with 20 points with Davin Hawari, Agot delas Alas and Erdy Ebido also contributing in double digits scores.
Earlier, Danube 1-Fruto stalled the entry of Danube Star-II Castello Restaurant to the semis with a convincing 87-73 victory. Lito Llave who posted a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds was adjudged as the best player of the game. Bruce Banaag, Ariel Gabia and Junjun Llave all chipped in double digits scores. Playing Coach, Norie Santiago controlled the board with 9 rebounds. Danube Star-II Castello Restaurant, which suffered its second setback, must prevail over Danube 4-Mcvities in its last outing to gain entry to the semis. In its losing effort against Fruto, Vic Mabutol led his team again with 25 points and 9 rebounds. Though Francis Cabenero, Willy Perez, Willy Cartajena and Cris Endaya all scored in double digits, their efforts were not enough to overcome the deeper bench of Danube 1-Fruto. In the other game, Danube 5-Luna ended its campaign on a positive note, stealing a 73-69 victory from Danube 3-Shadow. Marlon Calayo paced his team anew with 37 points and 10 steals, a career high. Arvin David, Manny Campos and Rodney Corpuz contributed 11, 9 and 7 points respectively for the team’s only victory.
