Poblacion Oriental stuns Lamac, leads early semifinalists in Alegado Cup

The rampaging Poblacion Oriental stunned defending champion Lamac, 82-76, in a battle of unbeaten teams to gain outright semifinal entry in the Inter-Barangay Seniors A of the 7th Mayor Teresa 'Nene' P. Alegado Cup in Consolacion.

Aside from marching into the semis, Poblacion Oriental also earned a twice-to-beat incentive in the next round by topping their bracket with a clean 3- 0 slate.

The red-hot Malagar brothers Larry and Lemuel were at it again, conniving for 44 points, while Jerome Valle chipped in 19 markers as Poblacion Oriental gamely held on its ground against a tough Lamac opposition until the closing minutes of the game to scrape through a six-point win.

Jacob Baguio finished with 22 points, while Joseph Cabahug and Kelvin Maglasang had 33 points in between them for Lamac, which had to hurdle its remaining assignments to keep it title defense in motion.

Poblacion Oriental was joined into the next stage of the tournament by Pulpogan, which barged into the round of four after gunning down Cansaga, 71-65.

Ernesto Tudtud sparkled with 23 points and Russel Gungob scored 17 for Pulpogan, which relied on a solid endgame finish to fend off the gritty Cansaga side.

Pulpogan also booked a Final 4 berth in the SK Juniors A after escaping past Tayud, 79-75, behind a 22-point show by Wenard Saliot backed up by 15 points each from Patrick Montano and Paulo Dalumpines.

Pulpogan proceeded into the next round together with Pitogo, which pulled off a 73-72 cliffhanger over Cabangahan thanks to 33point explosion of Marco Booker Panta.

In the Midget A category, Poblacion Occidental became the first semifinalist after trouncing Nangka, 73-52.

James Beltran, Jose Sabanal, and Don Beltran conspired for 40 points in Poblacion Occidental's wire-to-wire victory. In full control after racing to a 158 start, they pounded Nangka in the remaining quarters on the way to a 21point blowout.—

EBV