DFS Galleria clinches title

 DFS Galleria pressed all the right buttons in their winner-take-all championship match against PSS/McGraw-Hill in the 3rd Annual Shirley’s Coffee Shop Invitational Basketball League for an emphatic 92-63 victory last Sunday night at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.

DFS read PSS’ pressure defense, ran its usual fastbreak plays, nearly played perfect defense, stuck with a solid six-man rotation, and remained focus despite temporarily losing two key players to take the lopsided win in the championship.

PSS, which killed Fiesta Resort & Spa with relentless pressure defense for a convincing semis win, did the same thing against DFS early in the first quarter, but this time the plan backfired.

“PSS ran a 2-2-1 press right at the very start of the first quarter and we immediately knew what to do to break that. We looked for gaps, positioned ourselves away from the guarded spots, and let Dan Barcinas carry the ball for us,” said player/coach Gabriel White.

Barcinas protected the ball well, while White, Pete Iguel, Junar Guiab, and Jack Lizama were always at the right spots to receive the pass and were able to dribble out of their defenders. Iguel also managed to score several fastbreak points every time DFS beat PSS’ press and he finished with 18 big points in the first quarter alone, giving his team a 28-15 lead. PSS let go of its press midway in the first frame and used it sparingly in the next three quarters.

DFS won despite missing the services of Quincy Johnson the entire game.

While PSS’ press was an exercise in futility, DFS’ defense was as tough as nails that even eventual scoring champion and regular season MVP Dave Sablan could not break it. Sablan missed his first six attempts and was limited to five points in the first half. He failed to make more than two field goals in each of the four quarters and left the game at the 2:44 mark of the fourth period with 16 hard-earned points and his head bowed after a rough night.

“We just played a simple 2-3 zone defense and watched out for PSS’ scorers and their motion offense. We stuck together in the paint,” White said.

The most effective way to beat DFS’ 2-3 zone was to take and make outside shots, but PSS was also not lucky in that department. With Sablan off and challenged by DFS defenders, PSS called on Walter Mendez, Gus Palacios, Lawrence Buniag, Maverick Itibus, and Jerry Diaz, but no one responded. If only coach John Sablan could field himself in the game to give PSS the needed outside shooting boost.

PSS’ big guys failed to deliver big games, too. Fitial like Sablan had to bleed for points before finishing in double figures with 17. His driving lanes were shut down, he missed most of his outside shots, and entry passes were hard to come by. Mel Manibusan, who stepped up in the semis, made eight points, but his presence was hardly felt in the all-important game. James Villacrusis chipped in 10, but was held to a field goal in the second half. No PSS player logged more than two field goals in each of the four periods.

With PSS continuing to struggle offensively in the second quarter, DFS’ lead ballooned to 24 at halftime, 51-27. Dan Barcinas led the second-quarter breakaway with his 12 points, while Lizama added seven and finished the first half with 15. DFS managed to pull away despite momentarily losing White early in the second canto. The DFS coach was forced to sit on the bench after getting an accidental elbow from a driving Sablan and sustaining a cut on the top right of his head.

White returned to the game in the third period with a bandage wrapped around his head. Later in the fourth canto, Iguel had the same dressing applied above his right eyebrow, which suffered a cut off another elbow from Sablan. Iguel left the court with over six minutes remaining in the third after scoring 22 points.

With Iguel down, Barcinas, Lizama, Guiab, and White stayed together and were joined by sixth man Won Joo Jung. The quintet still outgunned PSS in the third, 20-11, for a commanding 71-38 lead. Only Fitial, Sablan, and Itibus scored for PSS in another anemic production in the third canto.

DFS led by as much as 37 when Iguel reported back to the game in the fourth quarter and recorded six more points for a game-high 28 markers. PSS managed to cut it down to as low as 25 when it started to score garbage points. DFS stayed with its six-man rotation in the fourth before sending its shock troopers in the last two minutes with the game way out of PSS’ hand.

DFS Galleria 92 – Iguel 28, Lizama 27, Barcinas 21, Guiab 8, White 6, Jung 2.

PSS/McGraw-Hill 63 – Fitial 17, Sablan 16, Villacrusis 10, Manibusan 8, Mendez 4, Buniag 3, Itibus 2, Diaz 1.

Scoring by quarters: 28-15, 51-27, 71-38, 92-63.