Capricciosa takes joy out of Jollibee

It’s not how you start, but how you finish.

Capricciosa underachieved in the first three quarters before turning on the afterburners in the homestretch in their 90-70 win against Jollibee yesterday morning in the 2004 Inter-Restaurant Basketball League at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

The win secured for the elimination round topnotchers the first finals seat in the best-of-three championships slated to start next week.

Capricciosa played it casually even against a Jollibee team that started the game with only five players.

It did set the tempo of the ballgame leading 15-8 and 32-22 in the first two quarters, but Jollibee was dead-set on pouncing on Capricciosa’s overconfidence and in fact gave them a lot of nervous moments, especially in the second half.

Jollibee charged from a baker’s dozen deficit to trim it to just 43-40 less than four minutes remaining in the third quarter. Not even a timeout by Capricciosa managed to cool down Jollibee as Chris Marcelo would hit twice from inside to give his team an improbably 44-43 lead.

But with the specter of losing finally getting through, Capricciosa players regrouped in the final 2:59 of the canto and outscored Jollibee 9-1 to take a more comfortable 52-47 spread entering the fourth and final quarter.

Capricciosa took their opponents more seriously in the payoff period. Led by the Mutt and Jeff tandem of Gyles Ruluked and Ed Arriola, they would rebuild their advantage to as much as 12 points.

But a confident Jollibee side now knew how to beat Capricciosa and hacked on Capricciosa’s double-digit advantage in more than one occasion.

Jollibee brought the lead down to 61-53 with 6:08 left when center Edwil Reyes found Marcelo for a twinner. Chris Reolope gave his team one last gasp when his 3-pointer made it 65-56 time down to 4:16.

But that was the closest Jollibee would get to Capricciosa, as the pennant champions wrapped up the ballgame with a 35-14 run highlighted by birthday boy Reynaldo Camacho’s late-game offensive burst.

Ruluked was named best player of the game after once again filling the stat sheet with 17 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. Arriola topscored with 18, while Antonio Roman and Camacho chipped in 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Reyes finished with 19 points and 3 assists to pace Jollibee. Marcelo also tossed in 12 points in the loss.

The IRBL resumes at 11pm tonight at the Ada Gym with the other semifinal game between elimination round runner-up Angel Wings and powerhouse Country House.

Capricciosa 90 – Arriola 18, Ruluked 17, Roman 15, Camacho 14, Molar 9, Viola 6, Mangahis 5, Navarro 1.

Capricciosa 70 – Reyes 19, Dulong 14, Marcelo 12, Reolope 11, Isip 6, Cruz 6, Santos 1, Luna 1.

Scoring by quarters: 15-8, 32-22, 52-47, 90-70.

Referees: Ricky Itaas and Arnold Mesa.