LM Money Transfer Eliminates New World

In a battle of survival, the game could have gone either way. With both teams knowing what was at stake, it seemed like they were competing for the finals. In reality, New World and LM Money Transfer were fighting for the last spot in the Final Four of the LS Banal Cup.

The winner will advance to the semis, while the loser takes a rest. This was definitely in the minds of the players and coaches. Game was close right from the start, with the Supermarketeers taking the first half behind Derrick Vivares's sniping and fast breaks, by half time score was 39-34. By the third canto the two teams were only one point apart 55-54, with New world still ahead. In the final quarter, veteran Ross Ganzan took charge by scoring 8 points of his game high 15. Ganzan scored all his points in the shaded lane and dominated on both sides of the court. Teammate Ronald Hidalgo also chipped in 15 points as they slowly crawled their way to a victory.

New World had several chances to catch up but missed some easy baskets and committed too many turnovers which the Money Experts capitalized on. With the final score of 81-75, the Money Transferers advances to the semis while New World will take a rest.

In the other game, finals contender JR Panel and Dimond/Ampelite fought fiercely to keep pace with league leader Manila Motors. With tournament format applying the carry over system, every win counts at this stage. Especially with the top three teams having win loss cards that are so close.

Lead changed several times with the Roofmakers starting strong leading by as much as 10 points only to see the Panelbeaters fight back. Half time score was 54-45 in favor of the defending champs. Second half saw some key players of the JR Panel get into foul trouble going into penalty early. Joshua del Rosario scored 10 of his season high 31 points in the third.quarter But Elliot Zshornack also scored 10 of his own to give Dimond the lead, score 80-72 end of 3rd for the defending champs. Final score was 107-94 for the Roofmakers' sixth win in 8 outings to finish 2nd place in the standings after 2 rounds of elimination while JR Panel tallied 5-3 for third.

This was Mike Becker's break out game scoring a season high 29 points and converting on numerous follow up points to lead his team. Zshornack also scored 29 while Hebron Canlas contributed 18; inconsistent Perry Salas had 17 with 10 of those in the crucial 4th quarter. For JR Panel Joshua del Rosario was followed by Ferdie Manuel's 21 and 3pt king Lester Latosa's 13.