Joeten boosts finals bid

Joeten’s Kixon Kwon stretches for a baseline layup against CUC’s John Santos during the first quarter of Game 1 of their semis series in the JP World caging last Friday at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Joeten inched closer to a finals stint in the 2nd JP World Corp. Customer Appreciation Basketball League following a 96-81 victory against Commonwealth Utilities Corp. in their semis series opener last Friday night at the Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium.

Dixon Kwon led Joeten’s Game 1 win, as the lefty wingman knocked in 27 points. He also drew a lot of support from his teammates with three other Joeten players finishing in double figures. Sid Quan chipped in 16 markers and Steve Rasa and Alex Lauron contributed 15 and 11, respectively.

The quartet provided Joeten consistent scoring, as the squad recorded 20-plus points in each quarter, leaving CUC with no chance to pull off an upset in Game 1 of the best-of-three semis series. CUC came into last Friday’s match upbeat after stunning the second-ranked MBI/KFC in the first round of the playoffs, 79-76

CUC then managed to stay afloat in the first quarter of Game 1 of the semis series, behind by only 5, 22-27. Eugene Manglona recorded 12 points in the opening canto to keep CUC in the game. He added 8 more in the second frame, as Joeten still could not pull away leading by only 7 at the break, 49-42.

The breakaway came in the third canto with Kwon, Quan, Rasa, and Lauron teaming up in a 24-15 scoring run to lift Joeten to a 73-57 advantage. Kwon nailed 7 points in that quarter, while Quan, Lauron, and Rasa added at least 4 points apiece to open a double-digit spread.

Joeten never relinquished the twin-digit lead from thereon with Kwon and Quan finishing off CUC. The duo combined for 14 of Joeten’s 22 markers in the final canto.

Manglona paced CUC’s losing cause with his game-high 31 points, while John Santos was the only other CUC player to hit double figures with 17.

CUC and Joeten played Game 2 of their short series last night with the former pressed to win to avoid elimination. Also scheduled last night was the Tan Holdings-McDonald’s own Game 2 with the latter gunning for the victory that would prevent the former from advancing to the finals. Results of neither match were unavailable at press time.

Joeten 96 – Kwon 27, Quan 16, Rasa 15, Lauron 11, Sambile 5, Tobias 5, Taisague 2, Jacob 2, Villegas 2.

CUC 81 – Manglona 31, Santos 17, Benavente 9, Simada 9, Poquiz 7, Nunez 4, Masga 4.

Scoring by quarters: 27-22, 49-42, 73-57, 96-81.