Host Taguig and Quezon City debuted in style against separate opponents, while Caloocan bounced back from an opening day loss to notch a first win, all in the second playdate of the Metro League Open Division tournament last Tuesday at the Hagonoy Sports Complex.
On a day of one-sided results in the Philippine Basketball Association-backed tourney which is part of the Metro Manila Development Authority’s Metro Manila Sports Fest, the Generals demolished San Juan 91-71, the Junior Capitals routed Las Piñas 72-53 while the Supremos overpowered Marikina 101-80.
Quezon City thus joined opening-day winners Valenzuela and Manila for the early lead in the North Division, while Taguig also grabbed a share of the early lead in the South Division with another opening winner in Pateros in this tourney presented by “mobile app ng bayan” Barangay 143 and which has Spalding as official ball and Team Rebel Sports as official outfitter.
The Junior Capitals eye a second straight win while the All-Stars will try to do the same when they take on San Juan and Pateros, respectively, as action shifts to the San Andres Sports Complex in Manila Thursday.
Quezon City takes on Solid San Juan in the 4:00 p.m. first game while Manila squares off with Isang Pateros in an early battle of undefeated teams at 7:30 p.m. Las Piñas and Parañaque collide in the 5:30 p.m. second game eyeing a first win at each other’s expense.
McArthur John Enriquez fired a tournament-best seven triples en route to a game-high 29 points in Caloocan’s win over undermanned Marikina.
Enriquez scored all his output in the first three quarters of the game where the Supremos outscored the 10-man Shoelanders squad in every period en route to leads of as much 27.
John Mahari’s 14 points and Sandy Señal’s 12 led Quezon City’s balanced attack against Las Piñas whose output for the game matched the Junior Capitals output for three quarters.
Led by Richard Albo’s game-high 19 points, Taguig was battled by San Juan to 35 lead changes and 12 deadlocks and was ahead by just 57-56 when the Generals went on a blistering 15-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to break the game wide open.
