The trigger-happy GlobalPort Batang Pier put a major stop in expansion team Kia Carnival’s recent rise, hitting the right baskets to pull away in the second quarter and take home the 102-94 win, Sunday afternoon at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Kia took an early lead in the opening minutes of the ball game, taking a 6-5 advantage. A 9-2 run spurred by baskets from GlobalPort’s Jarrid Famous and Terrence Romeo saw the Batang Pier take control in a flash with a 14-8 lead. After biting at the Batang Pier’s heels for the next few minutes of play, the Carnival went on a 7-0 run care of Karl Dehesa, Hyram Bagatsing, and Chang Tsung-Hieng that gave them back the lead, 19-17, with around four minutes left to play. The late first quarter’s exchange of firepower ended with Kia on top, 29-27.
Another barrage of baskets from both sides of the court broke out in the second quarter, with neither looking to pull away. Around the halfway point of the quarter, five straight points care of GlobalPort’s Famous and Pringle gave the Batang Pier the first two-possession edge of the quarter, 38-34. At the end of another heated twelve minutes, the Batang Pier entered the halftime break with a 50-47 lead, care of a buzzerbeating Doug Kramer triple.
A slower-paced third quarter saw the Batang Pier shoot enough just to keep the Carnival from trimming the gap. Despite their import Hamedy N’Diaye’s efforts to keep the offensive flow alive for Kia, a visibly exhausted Carnival roster found themselves unable to break out of the game’s new pace. At the end of the third, the Batang Pier still led, 76-71.
With N’Diaye the only functioning cog in the Kia offense, the gap would widen for the Batang Pier. Eight unanswered points care of Famous, Kramer, Pringle, and Romeo with just around five minutes left on the clock gave GlobalPort the double digits of the ballgame, 94-79.
As the last two minutes of the game came along, GlobalPort still had the lead, 96-86. A layup off the fastbreak by Dehesa trimmed the gap a little bit more for Kia, 88-96. Another two points came Kia’s way at the 1:22 mark, when their workhorse reinforcement N’Diaye hit an easy dunk to make the best out of the extra possession. In a flash, the GlobalPort lead had been trimmed down to six.
But any hope of Kia crossing the gap disappeared in the next possession, when an easy pull-up triple from Terrence Romeo extended the lead to nine with around less than a minute. A split charity from Chang and a triple from Dehesa in the last half minute of play could work no miracles for the Carnival.
Jarrid Famous had an impressive 30 points and 37 rebounds to lead the Batang Pier. Terrence Romeo added 27 points, sinking 3 of his 5 three-point attempts. Hamedy N’Diaye led Kia with 29 markers. GlobalPort hit 8 of their 16 tries from beyond the arc. They now improve to 6-4. Kia on the other hand slides to 4-4.
The Scores:
GLOBALPORT (102) – Famous 30, Romeo 27, Pringle 10, Kramer 9, Buenafe 9, Krayem 7, Semerad 5, Mamaril 3, Miranda 2
KIA (94) – N’Diaye 29, Dehesa 20, Webb 15, Chang 11, Bagatsing 8, Revilla 6, Buensuceso 3, Deutchman 1, Nuyles 1,
Quarters: 27-29, 50-47, 76-71, 102-94
