Win not enough for Cebu-Mandaue to advance

10/18/2009

MANDAUE CITY – Cebu Landmaster-Mandaue pulled off the 76-71 victory over Forward Taguig but left with an empty bag in a dramatic final day of the preliminary round of the Smart Liga Pilipinas Conference III Mandaue City Leg Friday at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Center.

Needing to win by at least 10 points in order to force a three-way tie with Taguig and the Quezon Red Oilers at 2-1, Mandaue was leading comfortably by as many as 13 markers in the fourth period. But Taguig slowly closed the gap as Mandaue put up a series of hurried plays allowing their opponents to score off their miscues.

Quezon and Taguig thus earned seats in the leg finals with superior Fiba quotients of 1.053 and 1.000 respectively. Mandaue finished at 0.947 and will meet the winless Zamboanga Uno Latinos for Third Place.

The Mandaue City Leg champion will have the inside track at the second outright seat in November’s five-team Super Leg that will determine the next National Champion of the league backed by Smart, Accel, Molten, Calcium-Cee, Gatorade, Air 21 and Burlington and sanctioned by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP). The undefeated M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Ninos are already assured of the top seeding with an unreachable 45 points.

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