Ave Maria Sanctuary and Park rose to the top of the standings following its 94-79 victory over the Asian College of Technology Cyber Knights in the Cebu Basketball Association-M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala Mayor’s Cup basketball tournament yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.
The wards of head coach Edito Salacut and team owner Raffy Senining, thus, notched their second win. Their first win was logged late Sunday night as they slipped past the Three Sixty Pharmacy, 93-89, with Jercules Tangkay leading a balanced attack with 20 points.
In yesterday’s game, Ave Maria erected an 18-point lead in the third period as Alex Caingle scored five straight for a 69-51 advantage.
ACT, behind the efforts of flashy guard Eliud Poligrates and former pro Mark Magsumbol, unleashed a run that sliced the deficit to seven, 62-69, heading to the last stanza.
But Ave Maria simply had too many weapons as Mike Cantonao sank a long three-pointer while Tangkay followed with a three-point play that once again put the lead back up to double digits.
ACT got as close as 10, but Danny Aying hammered the last nail in their coffin with a back-breaking straight-away trey with 3:03 remaining.
Aying paced the winners with 18 points while Tangkay and Cainglet each had 17.
In the second game, the Rollway Customs Brokerage took advantage of a listless Southwestern University side to upset the fancied Cobras, 89-79.