CENTERPHIL Montessori Silver Knights and Hua Siong College of Iloilo Red Phoenix reached the finals of the 2nd Iloilo Governor’s Cup Regional Basketball after beating their semifinals foes on Wednesday at the Iloilo Sports Complex.
Silver Knights, representing Province of Iloilo, kept its title-retention bid alive following a 72-70 escape over St. Robert’s International Academy Panda Rockets in a tightly-contested knockout crossover semifinals match.
Lester Valn Paraico waxed hot offensively with 35 points, while Jose Rey Tuya and Adrian Germinal chipped in 15 and 12 markers, respectively, for the defending champions Silver Knights.
The Andee Ticson-mentored Silver Knights, however, will have to play sans injured starting guard Ronald Silorio in the gold medal match against the Red Phoenix, which reached the finals by beating Colegio de la Purisima.
The Silver Knights were seemed headed to dethronement after falling behind by as much as 15 points but slowly clawed its way back behind outside conversions by Paraico.
Tuya and Germinal then conspired with Paraico on offense in the second half to complete its fight back and pull off an upset against the heavily-favored Panda Rockets team.
“It was a test of character for the players. Other teams could have easily gave up after being down by as much as 15 points but they never gave up,” said CenterPhil owner Mark Plagata Palabrica. “I just hope that we can bring our energy to the finals.”
The winner of the Silver Knights-Red Phoenix gold medal match, which is still being played as of presstime, will earn the right to represent Visayas in the Breakdown Basketball National Games in Manila./PN
