4 teams survive opening round of Civic Center playoffs

8th Division’s Rodney Catalla, left, is pressured by an Islander Rent A Car defender during a regular season game in the Civic Center caging last month. Both teams survived the first round of the playoffs last weekend to make it to the quarterfinals. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Chowtime, Islander Rent A Car, 8th Division, and Pinatubo all made the grade in the first playoff round of the 2018 Civic Center Inter-color Basketball League held over the weekend at the Civic Center court.

Islander Rent A Car routed RNV last Sunday, 61-36, to complete the first four quarterfinalists in the 16-team field.

Jack Aranda powered Islander Rent A Car past RNV in the opening round of the playoffs after scoring 19 points. Sean Rabasto and Paulo Rafols also finished in twin digits for Islander with the former adding 13 points—9 of them came from the 3-point area—and the latter contributing 10. Ariel Baul had 16 points on a losing effort for RNV.

Aranda and company topped Pool A at the end of the regular season and after dispatching RNV —the last placer in Pool B—next up for the favored team at the upper half of the draw is the winner of the No.2 Camor and No. 7 Civic Master tiff, which will be played this weekend.

In the other quarterfinal pairing, it will be Chowtime versus 8th Division.

No. 4 Chowtime booked a quarterfinal ticket after outclassing No. 5 Budotz last Sunday, 72-61, while 8th Division made it to the next round earlier following an 81-59 domination of the Thunder last Saturday.

Ramsa Tenepere knocked down three triples to top-score for Chowtime, as he finished with 14 points. Jonathan Broncano chipped in 10, while Jawm Joyner and Mark Asuhan combined for 17 more points for the winning squad.

Lerio Pagarao paced Budotz with his 24 points, but was held to 4 markers in the final canto.

In last Saturday’s first playoff game, 8th Division played a balance offense to ease past the Thunder.

Four players scored in twin digits for 8th Division with Alex Lauron leading the way with his 17 markers. Joseph Torres tallied 15, while Maverick Itibus and Bart Demapan logged 14 and 10, respectively.

Behind after the first quarter, 13-15, 8th Division got its rhythm in the second, exploding for 27 markers against only 11 from the Thunder to grab the driver’s seat. 8th Division never relinquished the big lead after that, thanks to its multiple options on offense.

In other results last Saturday, Pinatubo defeated Batang, 58-51, to set u up a quarterfinal showdown with the winner between the Geotesting vs I-Secure duel.

Jerome Norita and Ed Pangelinan teamed up in bringing Pinatubo to the quarterfinals after delivering 18 and 15 points, respectively. They combined for 12 point in the fourth quarter to outgun the entire Batang crew.