Admirals Shine in BBEAL Game vs UC Jaguars

After a 2-2 win-loss start in the first round of the Baguio-Benguet Educational Athletic League, the other team that has won a title, a back to back crown actually, started a run that saw the Admirals take an early 40-28 lead.

It was a lead the Jaguars slowly tried to whittle on a night when their big men were outhustled for the board and their shooters were horrendous beyond belief.

Behind 69-73 at the start of the fourth, Buenaventura coolly drilled a twinner to put the Jaguars within two, 71-73. A steal midcourt could cut the Admirals to only one but UC muffed that saw the Admirals make it a 79-71 affair.

Then Daniel Tabangcura sank a trey from 21 feet and the Jaguars make it 74-79. Less than a minute and nearly at the same spot, Tabangcura sank a 22 feet trey, again over Eduard Trias, Jr., to move them to within two, 77-79.

The Jaguars tied the game on a Buenaventura twinner 79-all, and 5:22 remaining.

But it was the last fight for the spent Jaguars as the Admirals got a second wind despite the absence of top man Manuel Felix, who was hobbled with four fouls early in the third.

It was the young Admirals who came through in the last five minutes of play as Trias, Darwin Fernandez, a sophomore, and rookie Nuari Adame who did the heavy lifting as they put the game away for good.

A frustrated Buenaventura was called for an unsportsmanlike with 4:12 to go and the Admirals were up 85-79.

Trias, the prize find from Candon, Ilocos Sur, and Fernandez topscored with 22 a piece for the Admirals, while Felix and Adame chipped in 13 and 12 points respectively.

Trias was named the game’s best player as the Candon native is being hailed as the second coming of Harold Sabado, the Admiral of the fleet in the 2007-2008 season that saw CCDC wrest the title for Benguet.

“It is a quick release for this kid, unlike the higher percentage shooter Sabado,” said CCDC trainor Jun Rimando, who found Sabado in 2004 that started the rise of the Admirals as a new power in the BBEAL like the Great Armada of 1588 England.

“It will take a little more time but we will get there,” added Rimando, who was replaced as a coach in 2007 as CCDC won its first. PML

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