CMO-TRMH relishes back-to-back with young Archers
By NEILWIN JOSEPH L. BRAVO
This one is a no brainer. You win with youth.
From the very start, 2015 Kadayawan basketball champion City Mayor’s Office-The Royal Mandaya Hotel was thinking youth when it plotted its line-up for the 2016 Araw ng Davao Basketball Tournament as early as February.
Then came the golden, err make that green, opportunity. The De La Salle University Green Archers are open to the idea of coming over to Davao City for the short tournament. The next question was: Will they come in full force?
Co-owner Glenn Escandor won’t be blamed. Last year, 2015 NCAA runner-up San Beda came to don the team’s colors but not with a complete line-up. Not even Dabawenyo Baser Amer was in tow. With a team composed of young rookie-filled Red Lions, CMO-TRMH suffered a setback.
“La Salle was very accommodating and that led to the agreement to bring them over and play for us. We thank the DLSU officials for supporting us,” said Escandor who gave the players a brief but heart-rending pep talk a day before the tournament started.
Then it was all downhill from there.
On Saturday night, the Green Archers-powered CMO-Royal Mandaya Hotel nailed its second straight championship after blasting defending Goldstar Hardware in the finals 80-61 in a one-sided match that saw the young guns of Taft expose the ageing veterans the rude lesson of life’s inevitable human limitations.
Goldstar Hardware paraded former pros Jojo Tangkay, Marlon Basco and Pong Escobal (injured in the finals) – mostly in their near 40s or so, and the rigors of the highly-physical hoop game may have finally exacted their toll on the gritty veteran Hardwaremen.
Tangkay, once the most valuable player in the same tournament and a reliable gunner despite his ripe age, laid a big fat egg on Saturday. He was called for second motion on the young Andrew Stewart Langston in the first period and was never the same again. Basco, the 6-6 veteran slotman who was once a San Miguel Beerman, had 9 points. Escobal did not play and African import Steve Akomo did not score.
The Green Archers went to work early after Leomer Losentes hit three triples to open the ballgame on a torrid note, going 13-9 with 2:57 left and Ben Mbala, Jeron Teng and Langston on the firing end. The opening period ended 18-13 with a Abu Jahal Tratter split. Teng opened up the scoring in the second and Mbala continued to dominate inside to finish with 17 at the half and the Green Archers comfortably on top 38-26.
Another 11-point explosion by Mbala in the third practically took the wind of the short-winded Hardwaremen 60-47. By the fourth quarter, all the Green Archers did was to protect the lead as Goldstar started to get rough.
Mbala fired a tournament-high 38 points while Teng, Jayman Gob and Andrei Caracut had 8 apiece for the Green Archers who were steered by new coach Aldin Ayo and backstopped by veteran benchmasters Siot Tangquincen and Glenn Capacio.
Ayo, who gave Letran a championship last year in the NCAA, won Best Coach award, while Mbala was named Most Valuable Player after averaging 30.5 points in 4 games. Shooster Olago of Montaña Pawnshop won the Phoenix Slam Dunk title.
