Hula Girls nears sweep

Hula Girls extended its winning run in the 2013 Sun Palace Christmas Basketball Tournament after outclassing Futball, 67-44, last Saturday night at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.

Hula Girls now holds a 5-0 record, one win away from sweeping the double round-robin regular season. It’s last game will be against Wrecking Balls (4-1) on Wednesday and a victory would give Hula Girls the No. 1 spot in the playoffs and a date with the fourth and last-ranked team in the girls division.

Jan Travilla towed Hula Girls to the 23-point victory behind her outside shooting. The Mount Carmel School standout fired 26 points, drilling 18 of her markers from downtown. Marie Javier and Irish Pagarao also finished in twin digits, adding 13 and 10, respectively.

Travilla scored the last basket in the first half with her second triple of the night, lifting Hula Girls to a 30-20 halftime advantage. Then in the second half, the Hula Girls gunner nailed 7 of the team’s first 9 points to widen the gap further. Joana Palero logged the other 2 points off two charities. Travilla slowed down midway in the second half before connecting on three straight triples in the last five minutes of the one-sided match.

With the loss, Futball dropped to a 1-4 record and needs to win its last game against Tappers tonight to avoid being paired against Hula Girls in the semifinals. Diane Pablo top-scored in Futball’s fourth loss with her 12 markers, while Negahr Rastguiy chipped in 11.
Meanwhile, in the boys division, Rollers 1 bagged two wins over the weekend to gain a playoff berth.

Rollers 1 edged Rollers 4 in overtime last Friday, 81-80, and then slipped past Dream Team last Saturday, 68-63, to improve to a 5-1 record and tie Rollers 3 in the lead. Rollers 4 fell to a 2-3 card in the double-round robin elimination, pending the result of its game against Rollers 2 last night, while Dream Team is still winless in five games.

In the Rollers 1 versus Rollers 4 tiff, the former got one field goal each from five different players to pull off the 1-point win. J.P. Iglecias, Prince Factor, Irvin Malonzo, and Mike Arciaga made the first four baskets for Rollers 1 in the extension period, while Winson Yu nailed the go-ahead one. Only three Rollers 4 players lit up the board in overtime and the team also canned only three field goals and two charities.

Against Dream Team, Malonzo scored 4 of Rollers 1’s last 8 points to lift his team to the 5-point win. He finished with 10 points, joining two other teammates on the list of double figure scorers in last Saturday’s first match. Kanata Omori led Rollers 1 in scoring with his 18, while Arciaga contributed 14.

Irish Pagarao had 17 for Dream Team, which got 10 markers from Kyla Ito.

SATURDAY
First Game
Rollers 1 68 – Omori 18, Arciaga 14, Malonzo 10, Factor 8, Camacho 5, Pangelinan 4, Ano 4, Iglecias 2, Yu 2.
Dream Team 63 – Pagarao 17, Ito 10, I. Palero 9, Alegre 9, Abrams 8, Travilla 6, Pena 2.
Scoring by halves: 32-31, 68-63.
Second Game
Hula Girls 67 – Travilla 26, Javier 13, Pagarao 10, Pena 9, I. Palero 5, J. Palero 2.
Futball 44 – Pablo 12, Rastguiy 11, Lopez 6, Castillo 6, Phan 4, Enriquez 4, Minor 3, Lumabi 2.
Scoring by halves: 30-20, 67-44.

FRIDAY
Rollers 1 81 – Arciaga 25, Factor 19, Ano 10, Malonzo 10, Iglecias 6, Omori 4, Yu 4.
Rollers 4 80 – Kwon 33, Deocares 13, Ellama 13, Sagun 10, Iba 4, Santos 3, Bucayo 2.
Scoring by halves: 30-26, 71-71, 81-80.