Saints score sweep

Of course, the quarterfinals and semifinals are different stories

MOHAMMED Pare powers BRT Sumisip Basilan-St. Clare to a 37-point clobbering of Italiano’s Homme.

BRT Sumisip Basilan-St. Clare heads into the Philippine Basketball Association D-League Foundation Cup quarterfinals unscathed after blasting Italiano’s Homme by 37 points, 138-101, yesterday at the Paco Arena.

Malian slotman Mohammed Pare had 16 points and 14 rebounds as he spearheaded the well-deployed attack of the Saints, who swept the elimination round with a 6-0 record.

Darwin Lunor also had 16 points while Jessie Collado chipped in 14 points and seven rebounds and Joshua Fontanilla flirted with a triple-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists.

Cris Dumapig had 13 points as well while Junjie Hallare and Paul Santos chimed in 11 markers apiece.

BRT Sumisip-St. Clare will go into the next round with enough momentum on its side, but coach Stevenson Tiu remains wary, saying that the playoffs will be a much different story.

“Of course, the quarterfinals and semifinals are different stories,” Tiu said.

“We won’t be able to carry to the next round all of our games where we posted huge deficits. So we gave to start from scratch in preparation for the next rounds.”

After a rusty start that saw them trail 16-18, Dumapig sparked an overwhelming 17-0 blitz to give the Saints a 33-18 lead with 9:31 remaining in the second quarter.

The game would never be in question from then on as BRT Sumisip-St. Clare enjoyed a lead as many as 44 points, 134-90, following a Raymond Rubio three-pointer with 2:37 left in the game.

Paolo Pontejos had 31 points and six rebounds to lead Italiano’s Homme, which finished its campaign with a 1-5 card.