Mandaue-Cebu Landmasters/RDAK vies in GenSan leg of Liga V hoop

THE MANDAUE-CEBU Landmasters/RDAK will try to extend their dominance to Mindanao as they take part in the General Santos City leg of the Liga Pilipinas V today at the brand-new GMP Sports Complex.

The Landmasters have so far been the revelation of the tournament as they have bagged two leg titles, most recently their home leg two weeks ago, wherein they bested the Misamis Oriental Meteors for the championship.

While Mandaue is currently lording it over the rest of the field, focus will be on the hosts GenSan-MP Warriors, the Laguna Golden Lions and the Ilocos Sur CS Tigers, who are battling for the last three slots in the Super Leg, which will be held next month.

Only five of the six teams will get to advance to the next round of the competition.

The Warriors are expected to lean on their homecourt advantage along with the firepower being offered by Alfie Grijaldo and guard Louie Medalla, Liga’s third and fourth best scorers with 14.6 and 14.1 averages, respectively.

Meanwhile, Laguna will try to keep their winning run going as they have won five of their last eight games since Philip Cezar took over the coaching reins.

On the other hand, Mandaue is winning thanks to its stingy defense engineered by Coach Jun Tan. Two-time weekly Most Valuable Player Mark Magsumbol will again lead the team of Joe Soberano and Rick King, along with backcourt mate Axel Doruelo and center Marlon Basco.

Finally, the CS Tigers are looking for more help for team leader Chito Jaime, their only twin-digit scorer at 13.3 points per game.

Coach Johnedel Cardel has to extract more consistency from the likes of Ramsey Williams, Jorel Canizares and Warren Ybanez. After winning their first two games of the conference, the slumping CS Tigers has since won only twice in its next ten outings. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio