JARO, Iloilo City – A buzzer-beating shot saw Guimaras Leopards clinch a semis birth in the Mayor Jerry P. Treñas Basketball Tournament after a 101-99 escape over TEJ Builders on Friday night at the Jaro Gymnasium.
Zean Poral booked the spot for the Leopards, scoring from Eldrin Senierez’s pass that broke the deadlock in the dying seconds.
“We want to thank God for this win as we made it to the semifinals .Now that we are in the semis, we will take it one game at a time and hope that we can achieve our goal,” said Leopards head coach Richard Gabayoyo, whose team finished with a 4-3 record in the elimination round.
The no.4 seed Leoplards will join teams On D Move Sportswear, J. Cordon Construction-DPWH 2nd district and Uniwheels in the final-four cast.
Asialink/E&C Trucking, which bowed out of semifinals contention via the Leopards win, denied On D’ Move Sportswear an outright finals entry by blowing them their first defeat in the tournament.
Asialink, composed mostly of players from Santa Clarita International School Primes, took advantage of a shorthanded ODM to notch its third win in six matches.
“It is just unfortunate that we fell short of reaching the semifinals, but we will target at least the fifth place finish,” said Asialink team owner Philip Doce Punzalan./PN
