2012 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Game 7: B-Meg “Bowles” over TNT

Filipino basketball fans cannot ask for a better ending of the 2011-12 Philippine Basketball Association‘s second conference.  The game 7 of the Commissioner’s Cup finals needed five minutes more to finish. It seems that one of the best conferences ever in the history of the PBA did not want to end.  In the overtime period, the Best Import awardee Denzel Bowles took over and handed Tim Cone his first title outside of Alaska Aces.

The B-Meg Llamados won 90-84 over the vaunted Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters. It was a heart breaker for the MVP franchise as they led most of the game and was leading by two with Bowles at the line with 1.2 seconds left. Bowles made the biggest free throws of his basketball career to bring the game to overtime. He continued his superb play in the extra period by scoring 11 of the 14 points of B-Meg.  He capped his first season for B-Meg with 39 points, 21 caroms, and 3 blocks. Jimmy Alapag led TNTs valiant stand with 29 points, his best scoring performance in the series. The loss spoiled TNT’s attempt to win its 4th title in 5 conferences.  James Yap was chosen as the finals MVP.

The scores:

B-MEG 90 – Bowles 39, Simon 14, Yap 12, Urbiztondo 11, Villanueva 5, De Ocampo 4, Devance 2, Pingris 2, Barroca 1, Intal 0, Reavis 0

Talk ‘N Text 84 – Alapag 29, Harvey 16, Fonacier 11, Peek 10, Dillinger 8, Castro 5, De Ocampo 3, Reyes 2, Gamalinda 0, Williams 0, Carey 0

Quarters: 21-18, 34-35, 56-61, 76-76, 90-84

caloycomment: This game and series will be remembered for the call made with 1.2 seconds left… MORE

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2012 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals Game 6: Balanced scoring beats 2-man show

Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 2011-12 PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals is heading to an epic ending as the defending champions Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters bucked a slow start to defeat James Yap-led B-Meg Llamados, 92-82, in Game 6 of the best of seven finals series. The Texters survived the scoring outburst of Yap (27) and best import awardee Denzel Bowles (33), who combined for 60 big points. The Texters, however, limited the 12 other B-Meg players to a combined 22 points.

Five Texters led by Jason Castro‘s 25 scored in double digits. The Chot Reyes-mentored squad were able to overturn an early 5-14 deficit by making 14 of its 29 three point attempts. The series now moves to an unpredictable and dramatic game 7. It will be expected that a crowd of over 21,000 could come to watch the do-or-die championship match. The head count for game 6 live audience was 20,534 with celebrities like Freddie Roach and ex-NBA Center Luc Longley watching the Texter’s Game 6 victory.

The scores:

Talk ‘N Text 92 – Castro 25, Dillinger 16, De Ocampo 15, Harvey 11, Reyes 11, Fonacier 6, Alapag 4, Williams 2, Peek 2, Gamalinda 0, Harvey 0

B-MEG 82 – Bowles 33, Yap 27, Intal 5, Villanueva 5, De Ocampo 4, Barroca 2, Urbiztondo 2, Devance 2, Simon 2, Acuna 0, Gaco 0, Burtscher 0, Pingris 0, Reavis 0

Quarters: 19-27, 50-48, 67-63, 92-82

caloycomment: Game 7. I can hardly wait for Game 7. I will be eating dinner in front of the TV on Sunday … more

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2012 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals Game 5: Yap explodes to tow B-Meg to a 3-2 lead

James Yap at the BMEG Llamados game VS Talk N' Text Tropang Texters last October 21, 2011 at Cuneta Astrodome, Pasay City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Former MVP James Yap scored 30 big points to lead the B-Meg Llamados to an 82-66 victory over the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters in Game 5 of the best of seven finals of the 2012 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup. The  Tim Cone-coached Llamados just need one more win in the series to grab the title.

Game 5 was a stark contrast to Game 4 as the Llamados grabbed the lead in the first quarter and held on despite several attempted rallies by the Texters. Yap made all 4 of his 3-point attempts en route to a conference high in scoring. “Big Game” James also grabbed 9 rebounds for his best performance in the finals.  Import Denzel Bowles had  a monstrous 28 points, 18 rebounds, and 4 blocks output to prove once a gain that he is indeed the best import of the Commissioner’s Cup. Bowles dominated Talk ‘N Text import Donnell Harvey who was limited to 13 points and 16 rebounds. Jared Dillinger and Jason Castro led the Texters with 18 and 16 points respectively. B-Meg held a 49-40 rebound advantage while limiting the high scoring Texters to a 37% shooting clip.

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2012 PBA Commissioner’s Cup: Final 4 starts tomorrow

The quarterfinals ended on Easter Sunday with Barako Bull and B-Meg Llamados carving out victories in their do or die battles with Alaka Aces and Meralco Bolts respectively. Barako Bull will face top seed Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters in a best of five series for a spot in the finals.  The other match-up will be between sister teams B-Meg Llamados and Barangay Ginebra Kings.

Game Recap: Barako Bull 106-85 Alaska Aces

Undersized Gabe Freeeman showed that he is capable of leading any team to a PBA championship by giving the Barako Bull a 34 point-19 rebound boost to propel the lower seeded Barako Bull to an upset victory over Alaska Aces. Freeman outplayed Alaska import Adam Parada who finished his Commissioner’s Cup campaign with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. The Barako Bull made their move in the second quarter to pull away from a tight first period. By halftime, they led 55-42 and they never look back en route to another semifinal stint in the Commissioner’s Cup. Veteran guards Ronald Tubid and Willie Miller each contributed 20 points to give Freeman the scoring support that he needed.

Game Recap: B-Meg Llamados 86-76 Meralco Bolts

In the main game, the B-Meg Llamados and Tim Cone resurrected their hopes for a PBA title by rallying against the youthful Meralco Bolts. B-Meg needed a 25-9 wind-up to earn the right to face the Barangay Ginebra Kings in the semifinals. Denzel Bowles had a very productive game finishing with 28 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. He got scoring support from Joe DeVance  and Peter Jun Simon who scored 15 and 16 markers respectively. It was a sorry loss for Meralco who had monster games from Solomon Mercado (27 pts 5 rebs) and import Earl Barron (23 pts 11 rebs 4 blks). The victory is Tim Cone’s first series victory over former B-Meg coach Ryan Gregorio.

The semifinals will start tomorrow with Barako Bull battling the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City. Tip off will be at 6:45 pm.

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PBA play makes it to ESPN Sportscenter

ESPN (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A PBA play made it to ESPN’s top plays of the day. It was not a spectacular dunk or pass but it was a “funny” performance by PBA veteran Mick Pennisi. The Pennisi flop became viral as the Barako Bull player was shown having a delayed reaction after being hit by a ball. While the play was amusing, the flop was actually instrumental in Barako Bull’s victory over the slumping Petron Blaze Boosters. Will McDonald replaced highly efficient Nick Fazekas. McDonald was supposed to help salvage the season of Petron but because he threw the ball to Pennisi’s head, he got ejected and Barako just toyed with the import-less Boosters to coast to a victory. McDonald was also fined P20,000 for the act.

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Douthit lead Express to first win after a long time

Air 21 Express (1-0) 97 – 88 Barako Bull Energy(1-2)

After going 0 for 14 in the All-Filipino Cup, the Air 21 Express (formerly Shopinas.com) finally find its winning grove. Maybe, the name has some kind of effect. Maybe, the presence of Naturalized import Marcus Douthit brought the winning attitude. Whatever it is, the win gave many people behind the Lina franchise a big sigh of relief specially Coach Franz Pumaren. It doe not matter if the win is at the expense of sister team Barako Bull. Right from the first quarter, the Express were lights out as they lead by 20 after first 12 minutes of the game. Barako Bull tried to rally in final canto but the gap was to big to overcome.

Douthit finished with 16 points and 7 rebounds. His scoring is quiet low for imports but he got ample support from the locals led by Nelbert Omolon, RJ Jazul, James Sena, and Mark Isip who all scored in double digits and combined for 55 points. Dermarr Johnson had a 37 point night for Barako Bull but he did not get much local support as only Willie Miller (14) and Wynne Arboleda (12) scored more than 10 markers. The win gave the Express a perfect start of the new conference while Barako fell to 1-2.

Fazekas works hard for Petron

Petron Blaze Boosters (1-2) 84 – 77 B-Meg Llamados (2-1)

The main game had a similar story with the first game as the Boosters ended a 2 game slide (5 game losing streak if we include last conference’s semifinals) with a victory over sister team B-Meg Llamados. The loss also ended the Llamados’ 2 game winning run. Petron made a strong run in the first quarter to lead by 13 in the first 12 minutes. They practically held on to the lead for the rest of the game.

Import Nicholas Fazekas had 23 points, 16 caroms, and 4 swats to lead the Boosters. Arwind Santos had a double-double with 10 points, 14 rebounds along with 3 blocks. Joseph Yeo, Alex Cabagnot, and Dennis Miranda also finished in double figures. The Llamados were led by Denzel Bowles’ 22 points-10 rebounds performance.James Yap and Peter June Simon are the only locals who made more than 10 markers.  The Llamados wasted many opportunities to come back has they only shot 50% (12-24) from the free throw line while Petron made 16 of 22. The Boosters improved their record to 1-2 while the Llamados fell to 1-2.

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