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Game of the Week: Harbour clinch semis slot the hard way
by Jonas Terrado
(April 24, 2008)

Let's get to the chase, it was April 15, and not only was it a day for many to pay taxes to the government, a rare PBL gameday was held in the third floor of the Emilio Aguinaldo College Sports Center in Manila.

In that Tuesday afternoon, Harbour Centre gunned for its 10th consecutive victory to defeat a resurgent Toyota Otis Sparks, 99-92, to grab the first semifinal slot in the PBL Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup.

The clincher allowed the four-time PBL champions to rest while the team's ranked 3-6 will play in a mini-quarterfinal series once the elimination round ends.

Jason Castro put up a strong start for the league leaders, scoring four points early as his team made a 9-2 start in the opening four minutes. Despite a furious rally by the Sparks in the middle portion, the Batang Pier closed the final 3:42 on a 10-2 charge for a 24-14 edge as Solomon Mercado put up half of the team's output in that stretch.

Harbour extended their lead to as many as 12 points as sniper Jonathan Fernandez waxed hot for the Batang Pier, nailing a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc en route to a comfortable 47-37 lead going to the locker room.

When it seems almost everyone in attendance thought that the black-and-red drenched squad was in total cruise control, well they were wrong.

Toyota mounted a comeback in a physical third quarter as the bruising JR Sena scored four points, Jonathan Aldave hit a triple, and seldom-used Floyd Dedicatoria tipped-in a missed layup to narrow the margin to just three points, 51-48, with three minutes gone by.

Despite the rally, Harbour built the lead up by a still manageable cushion, 57-48, as Jeff Chan finished a fastbreak play off a Castro assist, at the 6:31 mark.

But the Sparks went to a 7-2 advantage in a three-minute stretch that had them within 59-57 on a long-range bomb by RJ Jazul. Still, Harbour quickly sent the lead back to double-figures, and eventually a 72-65 lead at the end of the third quarter, as the Batang Pier scored several charities off fouls by Toyota.

At the final canto, Harbour Centre's biggest lead came at 14 as Jerwin Gaco converted a basket inside for an 84-70 margin with 6:20 to go in the contest.

Despite that, Toyota staged a last-ditch effort as Jazul drained a three-pointer while Chito Jaime highlighted a 13-point fourth quarter with a jumper to pull within 84-77, with 4:45 to go.

It was then that playmaker TY Tang's offense suddenly took over when needed, as he quickly countered with a three, 14 seconds later, for a 10-point margin. While Jaime and Aldave slashed the lead in half, the veteran guard answered again, scoring a medium-range jumper while Castro put Toyota to rest as he drove past two defenders on a circus shot for a 91-84 edge with 2:46 in the ballgame.

Castro wound up leading Harbour Centre with 19 points, 12 coming in the second half while Tang scored seven of his game's 12 in the final quarter. For Toyota Otis, who fell to 5-7 at that time, got 18 points from Jazul and 15 points and eight rebounds from Jaime.

In a postgame discussion, head coach Jorge Gallent told several sportswriters that "we played well as a team, everybody worked hard from the start of the game."

When relayed that his team tied the record for the least turnovers in a game, equaling Ateneo Pioneer's record of six during a November 24, 2001 contest against Blu Detergent, Gallent made a simple remark.

"I guess we took care of the ball very well," Gallent said.

Despite getting the semis nod, the task is not yet done for the Batang Pier, who wrapped-up the week with a thrashing of San Mig Coffee two days later.

"Kung anu ang nilaro namin the first 10 games of the tournament, yun din ang laro na bibigay namin in the last five," Gallent quirked.

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