JK Casiño nailed the huge buckets to lift Bacolod past Bacoor City, 73-71, in the Chooks-to-Go Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Invitational powered by TM, Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The Centro Escolar University product converted an and-one off a foul from Paolo Castro. That gave the Ballers a 72-71 lead with 28.4 seconds remaining.
Casiño then earned a split from the line with 6.8 ticks left to extend the lead to two points.
He finished with nine points and eight assists in the win.
Rocky Acidre and Mark Doligon missed a three-pointer and a jumper on the other end, respectively, as time expired.
“Ang pini-preach ko naman sa kanila hindi ‘man kami maganda sa papel, pero we make sure magtatrabaho kami sa practice,” said Bacolod head coach Alex Angeles.
“Kumbaga suklian lang namin ‘yung grupo na nagpabalik sa amin sa game. Susuklian namin ng depensa. Kasi kung nakita niyo may run kami, may run sila. Pero at the end of the day kung sino ‘yung dedepensa, sila ‘yung mananalo. Dun kami nag-focus, especially nung crunch time,” he added.
Ichie Altamirano led Balocod in the scoring department with 12 points. He also had five rebounds and three steals off the bench.
Kenneth Tulipas chipped in eight markers, while Nhomer Gonzales had five points and 11 rebounds in the win that saw Bacolod climb from 16 points down in the second quarter.
On the other hand, Richard Albo posted a game-high 20 points. He also had five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block for the Strikers.
Doligon contributed a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds while Rocky Acidre scattered 13 points, four boards, and three dimes in the loss.
Bacolod is now tied with Iloilo at the top of Pool A with 1-0 records. On the other hand, Bacoor joined Negros at the bottom of the group with identical 0-1 slates.
Next up for Bacolod is Negros at 6:30 PM on Sunday. Meanwhile, Bacoor will next face Caloocan on Monday at 12:00 PM.
The Scores:
Bacolod (73) – Altamirano 12, Casiño 9, Tulipas 8, Viloria 7, Dionson 6, Montuano 6, Baiquin 6, Gonzales 5, Pastias 4, Soriano 3, Dela Cruz 0
Bacoor (71) – Albo 20, Doligon 19, Acidre 13, Castro 9, Canon 6, Galit 4, Taladua 0, Quilatan 0, Acuña 0, Garcia 0
Quarterscores: 11-20, 31-43, 58-55, 73-71.
