San Sebastian Stags Beat CSB Blazers in NCAA Season 87 Basketball Game: Ball Movement is The Key

Photo from NCAA.Org.ph

San Juan City, Philippines- Ian Sangalang acquired his second PS Bank Maaasahan Best Player of the game after he led the still unbeaten San Sebastian Stags over the hapless and win-less College of St. Benilde Blazers in their NCAA Season 87 Men's Basketball showdown yesterday at the San Juan Arena. Sangalang notched in 16 points and 7 rebounds for the Stags. The final score of the game was 76-68 in favor of Baste. They now have 2 wins and 0 losses while CSB continues to slide down in the team standings with 0 wins and 2 losses.

The score was close in the first half because Baste committed several turnovers. In the first half alone they accumulated 6 turnovers while CSB only had 1 turnover. The Blazers did an excellent job of cherishing their possessions in the first half. As a result, Baste's lead never exceeded 14 points. CSB's Carlo Lastimosa was one of the biggest reasons why the Stags' lead never went beyond 14 points at the end of the first half. He's finally back in the fold for the Blazers after being sidelined because of flu. He provided the spark for his team in the first half as he was able to fire in 20 big points for them.

In the third quarter, Carlo received some help from Grey and Luis Sinco. Grey and Sinco scored 12 and 11 points each. Those three players led CSB to a run in the last 5':28'' mark of the 3rd quarter. They managed to cut down the lead of San Sebastian down to 6 points but the well balanced scoring of San Sebastian that resulted from their great ball movement extinguished the fire that was made by CSB. From then on, Baste never looked back. Ian Sangalang was the primary beneficiary of those nice passes because he was moving well without the ball. He had 16 points in this game while Calvin Abueva dusted off his jersey after being suspended in their first game because of too many flagrant fouls. He had 15 points which was highlighted by a tomahawk dunk courtesy of Ronald Pacual's beautiful ahead pass. Ronald Pascual, the other half of the Pinatubo Twins, on the other hand, scored 15 points to help balance the scoring of San Sebastian. Baste won this game and they showed great poise despite the scare that CSB made. They now share the top spot of the team standings with Lyceum.

At the end of the game Calvin Abueva was so happy. He even answered a question on how does he feel about the departure of their number one point guard Pamboy Raymundo. He said that:

“Mas maganda pa ang ikot ng bola this season.”

Here are the scores from Inboundpass.com:

The scores:

San Sebastian 86 – Sangalang 16, Abueva 15, Pascual 10, Ferrer 10, Antipuesto 9, Miranda 8, Maiquez 7, del Rio 4, J. Dela Cruz 2, Balucanag 2, Vitug 2, Semira 1

CSB 78 – Lastimosa 20, Grey 12, Sinco 11, Taha 9, Tan 7, Romero 6, Dela Paz 5, Pate 5, Altamirano 2, McCoy 1, Nayve 0, Deles 0

Quarter scoring: 24-16, 49-35, 70-57, 86-78