THE TOP-SEEDED Salazar Colleges of Science and Institute of Technology (SCSIT) Skyblazers leaned on the scoring of Mark Abadia and the leadership of Stephen Padilla to hack out an 85-77 victory over the Asian College of Technology (ACT) Cyber Knights at the start of the semifinal round of the M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Basketball Association last Sunday night at the Cebu Coliseum.
Abadia tallied 26 points, 18 of which came in the first half while Padilla set up his teammates down the stretch for some crucial baskets to help get the Skyblazers their first win in this round, a single round-robin affair with the top two teams advancing to the best-of-three championship on May 29.
The Cyber Knights are the only team to defeat SCSIT in the tournament and appeared poised to do a repeat as they led for most of the first half, including an eight-point bulge, 41-33, with less than five minutes left in that stretch.
But Abadia came alive and anchored an 8-2 run that sliced the deficit to just two, 41-43, at the turn.
Then the tides completely turned in the third period as the Skyblazers unleashed a 15-2 run with Ronan Isidro scoring nine of those including a three-pointer that put them on top, 60-51. They eventually brought a 64-55 lead to the fourth period but the Cyber Knights did not give up and crawled to within three, 75-78, after a three-point play by Dondon Nunez.
Padilla though, sensing the mismatch with diminutive guard, Ronald Bucao, defending him, went to the low-post to draw the defense and kicked it out to Baltazar Jueves, who made a jumper with less than two minutes left to give them an 80-75 lead. Isidro and Padilla then made free-throws in the waning seconds to preserve the win.
/Correspondent Jonas Panerio