Gab Banal waxed hot from the three-point area to guide the Quezon Huskers to a 75-62 victory over the Parañaque Patriots in Game 1 of the Southern Division semifinals on Monday night at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City.
The former PBA forward finished with 16 points, including four three-point conversions, to go with nine rebounds, four assists, and a block as the Huskers took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
“Kasi two weeks kami walang laro so talagang prinactice namin ‘yung shooting namin, this morning nag-shooting rin kami dito, and I guess that is the advantage of having a homecourt advantage,” Banal said in a post-game interview.
“Siguro naging composed lang kami, may stretch na nagstruggle kami sa 2-3 zone defense nila, so we have to just go back to the drawing board and figure things out,” he added.
Ximone Sandagon added 16 markers, five rebounds, one steal, and a block, while Judel Fuentes also regained his offense to end up with 13 markers, including three triples, for Quezon.
With the score tied at 50-all, the Huskers went on a 13-0 scoring blast behind three-pointers by Banal and Fuentes and inside conversions from Sandagon and Jason Opiso for a 63-50 lead.
The Patriots responded with their own run to cut the deficit to single digits, but the Huskers got five straight points from Banal and inside baskets from Sandagon to increase the lead to 14 points.
John Uduba finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, while Jielo Razon added 12 markers for the Patriots.
The post Gab Banal steps up as Quezon secures Game 1 win over Parañaque first appeared on Fastbreak.
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