The Caida Tile Masters are a team filled with potent scorers and alphas.
Tuesday afternoon, the high-powered Caida Tile Masters displayed great ball movement in a 122-97 thrashing of the AMA Online Education Titans to gain a 2016 PBA D-League Aspirants Cup semifinals slot at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
The dangerous Caida five showcased great familiarity and excellent flow to start the game. The starting five of Jason Perkins, Rey Nambatac, Billy Ray Robles, Dexter Maiquez, and Jio Jalalon combined for all of the Tile Masters’ 32 first quarter points. Moreover, they held a 12-point lead to end the opening salvo, as RR De Leon had been the only one keeping AMA afloat.
Caida’s bad habit in their first games in the league showed in the second quarter, as they took bad shot attempts all throughout. AMA were able to take advantage of this to cut the lead to just five, 32-27, early in the quarter. Through Rashawn McCarthy’s 8 points and big man Jammer Jamito’s 7, AMA were able cut the lead to just four, 51-47, to enter the break
Head coach Caloy Garcia lamented the showing they displayed in the second quarter. “We have to be consistent,” he said. “We played a good first quarter tapos nung second quarter, when the second-stringers were in, we gave up too many layups.”
“We know that AMA parang kulang sila sa height so they played small. That’s what McCarthy and de Leon did to us.”
After a pep talk, Caloy Garcia’s squad blasted their opponents from all fronts. Philip Paniamogan led the charge by knocking down three triples in the quarter for 11 points, while Jamil Gabawan worked his way inside for ten inside points in the quarter. Moreover, the pressure they displayed led to a 93-70 lead to enter the final frame.
“That’s why coming out in the third quarter, we pressured them and played better defense. That’s when the game probably ended.”
Caida’s bench put the nail in the coffin with a game-high 27 point lead, 85-58, in the early goings of the last quarter. Almost everyone plugged in by the Caida staff contributed to their cause, as all players were able to score. After the dust had settled, Caida took the game 122-97.
The Tile Masters shot 49% from the field compared to just 42% for the Titans. Moreover, Caida assisted 34 of their 48 field goals. “I always tell the players that we have a lot of talented players who can score. The only problem there is sharing the ball,” Garcia shared. “In order for us guys to get to the next level, you have to know how to play with players who are more talented. In the third quarter, we started to share the ball.”
Jason Perkins led five players in double-figures with 17 points on an excellent 7/9 shooting clip. Jio Jalalon notched another double-double with ten points and ten dimes. Coming off the bench, Paniamogan scored 16 points and was able to knock down four three-pointers.
On the other hand, Rashawn McCarthy scored a game-high 20 points for AMA. RR De Leon and Jerramy King both scored 16 apiece.
The Caida Tile Masters will face the winner of the Phoenix-FEU Accelerators/BDO-NU Bulldogs series.
The Scores:
Caida Tiles (122) – Perkins 17, Paniamogan 16, Gabawan 10, Jalalon 10, Nambatac 10, Robles 9, Ruaya 9, Maiquez 8, Cabrera 7, Grey 7, Terson 7, Parala 5, Javier 4, Lozada 3.
AMA Online Education (97) – McCarthy 20, Jamito 16, King 16, Jordan 14, De Leon 12, Angeles 6, Asuncion 4, Gutierrez 3, Magpantay 2, Tampus 2, Tobias 2, Carpio 0.
Quarterscores: 32-20, 51-47, 93-70, 122-97.
