Willtrade/Phoenix finally got its hands on the championship trophy with a masterful domination of the Avenue Suites, 110-75, in the final match of the Bacolod Tay Tung High School Alumni Basketball Tournament played Sunday at the Po Hang Gym.

With a 37-point demolition of defending champion Davies Paints in Saturday’s semifinals, Willtrade/Phoenix was primed to win the crown despite a strong resistance from Avenue Suites, which advanced to the finals by topping MS Tablet.

Despite the tight defense of Avenue Suites in the first quarter, the Rey Pandoro-mentored Willtrade/Phoenix managed to establish a 10-point lead in the first quarter, 23-13, with Bong Lopez scoring seven points and Tong Yap adding five points.

A full court press and double-teaming defense from Willtrade’s young guns in addition to an aggressive attack from their scorers effectively got the sting out of Avenue Suites’ as Willtrade completely controlled the game with a 76–22 halftime lead.

With team manager Willy Au at the sidelines, Willtade/Phoenix gave justice to the effort of its star player Carlos Chu and team captain Siopao Dichavez, who built a formidable squad out of a rag team that was formed three years ago.

The second quarter explosion was engineered by the complete cast of Malvin Pineda and Jepoy Nieles, who scored 25 and 15 points, respectively, Roy Dominguez and Oscar Du, who fired away from the three-point area, and Third Deloso and Anton Genobata, who grabbed rebounds.

Showing no mercy in the third quarter, Willtrade/Phoenix never gave Avenue Suites a chance as they upped the lead to as far as 60 points with Jan Nico Yap, Carlo Chu, Shenly Uy, and Dino Chua joining in the scoring spree.

Avenue Suites Gene Sibaya and Luis Genobata made a stand with 13 points and 7 points, respectively but it was not enough to reverse the outcome of the game as Willtrade cruised to an 95–45 entering into the final quarter.

The final quarter turned into a friendly game with both teams playing loosely and just trading shots. Sustaining the momentum in the last six minutes were Willtrade’s old guards Rodolph ‘Katse’ Reyes, Joseph Sian, Albert Co and Doc Antipuesto.

Meanwhile, MS Tablet won the battle for third place with a 101-74 taming of Davies Paints

This year’s edition of the BTTHS Alumni Basketball Tournament was supervised by Bobby Tee and Vic Tan as tournament officials.*NAB

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Willtrade blows away Avenue Suites to capture Tay Tung basketball crown
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