TIP squeaks AMA in BBI U25 caging

TIP squeaks AMA in BBI U25 caging

by rick olivares

The Technological Institute of the Philippines Engineers gave credence once more to the basketball saying, “bilog ang bola.”

The AMA Titans Team B was seeded to send TIP crashing to its third defeat in four outings. Instead, it was the Engineers who went home with the win to even their slate to 2-2 in the Breakdown Basketball Invitationals Under-25 Division for Team B.

From a closely fought match in the first 18 minutes, TIP gained the upper hand after Ximone Sandagon hit a jumper to give the Engineers a 29-28 lead at the 1:54 mark of the second period and go on a 6-0 run to close out the first half of play.

From that 33-28 lead, TIP slowly padded their lead as much as 14 points.

AMA rallied in the fourth period behind the three-point shooting of Fran Asuncion and the inside play of Luke Parcero whose two free throws brought the Titans to within a bucket, 68-66, 48 ticks left in the game clock. 

Titans’ guard JR Barde stole the ball from TIP but sniper Dexter Castillo’s potential game-tying basket was thoroughly rejected by Engineers power forward Bryan Santos. 

Mark Yu got another opportunity for AMA as he stole the ball from Jayson Jimenez but he too turned the ball over. TIP iced the game with three free throws, 71-66, for the win.

TIP’s Bryan Santos led the team in scoring with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks. Guilber Carurucan backstopped him with 13 points, four rebounds, and five assists. 

Mark Yu topscored for the game with 16 points for AMA that also got double digit scoring from Parcero (15 points), Asuncion (13 points), and Barde (10 points). What hurt AMA was their poor field goal (33%) and free throw (15-29) shooting.