Blades stay put; forces Ball Crushers to relegation
Best-Of-Three Relegation Series
Bacoor Blades vs. Ball Crushers
The Bacoor Forum
7:52
It was not a season to remember, but they did not have to pay the ultimate price of leaving Division III as the Bacoor Blades trump a hapless Ball Crushers team in two games to force them to relegate down to Division IV.
The first victory, an 87-67 decision at big arena, both teams began slow as the first quarter ended with the Ball Crushers up, 14-12. Tides would turn though, as a combination of improved offensive efficiency and a decline in the Ball Crushers defensive stance would give the Blades the upper hand as they take the first half, 40-36. It was a steady climb from then on as the Blades slowly built their lead throughout the second half.
Iliya Dimov ended with 28 points on 10-21 shooting, including 6-12 from beyond the arc. He was backed up by Pedro Horcasitas' 19 markers and Kelly Paul's 17. Although Marvin Vincent Montano had 27 points and Ratomir Nikolić had his usual double-double numbers of 20 and 15, the rest of the team, which is severely short-handed, was shut down the rest of the game.
The second game, which was an 100-82 victory, saw the Blades dominate early, an extremely-efficient performance from Marcos Paulo Petry saw the Blades surge to a 22-point halftime lead, 58-36. They would not look back since then as they finished off their inter-conference rival to remain in the League for at least one more season.
Petry led the Blades with 34 points on 11-14 shooting, with three triples in as many tries, all in just 20 minutes of action. Dimov had 20, Paul had 17 and Horcasitas with 15. A scoring rampage by Montano typified his status as league scoring leader as he ended up with 47 markers, while his partner-in-crime Nikolić had 17 and 13. Both tried but impossible circumstances went their way as their very short rotation was exploited with Francis Cordova fouling out of Game 1 after 41 minutes and in Game 2 after just 18 minutes and Alexander Justin Merlene fouling out of Game 2 after 46 minutes.
"In the end, they just did not have any other player than those five." says team manager TheDogMan. "This is not an insult to their team but it would have been a whole different story if they had at least three more bench options."
"Needless to say, we did not want to come to these games overconfident, because regardless of the odds being in our favor, the fact that our stint in Division III is on the line was enough to motivate them to play hard."
"Besides, upsets can occur and we can't have that." TheDogMan concluded.
"We can at least put our worries of being relegated aside for at least one season. We can focus on improving as a team." says team co-captain Kelly Paul. "We got the job done. Kudos to the Ball Crushers, for despite the odds, they tried to compete and that is something respectable."
"Susunod na yung offseason at yung draft. Excited na kami na makapaghanda for next season." says Mark Louis Hugos, the other co-captain.