Thursday, August 4, 2011

One Day Later: SSCR vs EAC, CSB vs JRU

SSCR 77 - EAC 70
Recap - - - Preview


Player of the Game : Ronald Pascual gets huge style points for his two crowd-pleasing dunks, plus a bonus for making the second dunk actually mean something, putting the Stags up four late. He finished with 19 points, four rebounds, two assists and a block with a 7 for 11 shooting performance.


SSCR Stat to Watch : Obviously, the defense lapsed big time when the reserves couldn't hold down the fort. The 70 point output of EAC is higher than the average allowed points of SSC, 64.8 points, and their field goal shooting, 35% is slightly higher than what the Stags normally give up, 33.5%. What prevented the result of the game from going the other way though, is that the three-point shooting of EAC didn't get off the ground, as they nailed just 3 of 19 or 16%.
SSCR Player to Watch : Apparently, there is a reason why Bobby Balucanag, Josh Grilli, Arvin Vitug, Lester Dela Cruz and Mark Magno don't hit the floor often, and never all at the same time. The bench mob couldn't stop anyone on the Generals team, allowing a 17 point lead to nearly disappear, before the veterans had to be reinserted to stem the tide.

EAC Stat to Watch : EAC had a pretty good night turnoverwise, making just 17 miscues, compared to 25 by the Stags, and they only allowed 7 fastbreak attempts, four lower than their average. It's the missed shots that really did them in though, as they blew a lot of attempts they could actually make.
EAC Player to Watch : Joshua Torralba was his usual trigger-happy self, finishing with 16 points but needing 18 attempts to get there, including a trio of wild circus layups that he probably couldn't replicate if given 10 tries. While the Generals do indeed lack a dynamic scorer, a role Torralba certainly fills, the coaching staff has got to take him aside and talk about his shot selection and the need to move the ball around.

Other Stats:
  • EAC got 77 shot attempts, compared to 61 by San Sebastian, and yet, both teams made 27.
  • This was definitely a game for Calvin Abueva haters to keep watching over and over, as "The Beast" committed a monstrous seven turnovers, without a single assist.

CSB 78 - JRU 77
Recap - - - Preview 

Player of the Game : Carlo Lastimosa could not be contained by the JRU defense, as the former rookie of the year got a career-high 30 points on 8 of 12 field goal shooting, 14 of 19 from the line, plus 4 rebounds and 3 assists. More importantly, Lastimosa was everywhere late in the game, scoring or assisting, even missing shots that lead to offensive rebounds for teammates. With all the emphasis on the addition of more scorers to Benilde, it's nice to know that when push comes to shove, they can still hand Lastimosa the keys to the car.

CSB Stat to Watch : Like the curse of the announcer when someone's trying to hit free throws, the moment I mention the Blazers have an efficient offense going on, they promptly throw out a 22 of 56 (39%) shooting night, a far cry from their 46.69% average entering this game. Though they attempted less shots than their already league-low average (just 56 attempts, down from an average of 57.83), they at least managed 17 offensive rebounds, matching their season high, and nine steals, a top mark for the season.
CSB Player to Watch : With Mark Romero hitting shots and the JRU bigs in foul trouble, Tim McCoy did not see a whole lot of minutes, tallying just 12 despite getting the start, and finishing with 3 rebounds and 2 blocks. 

JRU Stat to Watch : JRU got off to a decent start, scoring 19 first quarter points, up from their 13.2 average, but the defense in subsequent quarters just wasn't there. Entering the game allowing 15.2 points in the second quarter and 16.4 in the fourth, JRU gave up 21 in the second, and 24 in the fourth, which is when CSB made their runs.
JRU Player to Watch :  With John Lopez in foul trouble, Ronnel Carampil was expected to step up, but he produced just 11 points, five rebounds and a block, basically, his averages. That said, other big men like John Montemayor were filling in the gaps for JRU, so we can't entirely fault him.

Other Stats:
  • Both teams were horrible from beyond the arc, with neither finishing over 20%. CSB was just 2 of 11, both coming from forward Mark Romero, while JRU converted 3 of 20, one each from Nate Matute, Philip Paniamogan and Alex Almario.
  • JRU was held to a season-low 14 turnover points, when they came in averaging 21.2. They made up for it though with 23 second-chance points.

NCAA Picking Record:  21-10

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