Dispatching their respective lower seeded opponents in the quarterfinals, No. 3 Sweet Crystal Sugar and No. 4 JSY Transport secured their tickets to the semifinal round in the Fil-Sino All Asian Countertrade Inc. 3rd Conference InterColor Tournament, Wednesday night at Bacolod Tay Tung High School Po Hang Gym.

Tallying 29 points at the end of the game, Rey Pandoro led Sweet Crystal past No. 6 team AACI Trransport, 108-90, while Arvin Gustilo scored 16 of his 31 points down the stretch to ensure an 85-75 JSY Transport victory over No. 5 Basecom.

In taming AACI Transport, the trio of RJ Iligan, Atong Villanueva and Kib Montalbo combined for 21 points in the opening minutes to jumpstart Sweet Crystal's fiery performance, while Ton Ton Chua tried to counter attack with 10 points for the AACI squad.

Sweet Crystal gunners extended their lead at the break at 54-40 behind Pandoro's 13 points and Ronald Arabia's nine markers while Rommel Genovea contributed eight points for AACI Transport .

The third canto proved to be the best quarter for AACI as Tim Garrucho and Dan Dan Gustilo pooled their effort for 15 points, but Sweet maintained its lead at 79-65 behind a balanced offense spearheaded by Pandoro, Atong Villanueva and Marvin Ortiz.

AACI Transport rallied behind Garrucho and Chua in the endgame but their offense can't match with the explosive performance of Pandoro and Arabia as they contributed for 22 points as the time expired.

In the second game, the second quarter difference made up for the 10-point winning margin of JSY Transport as both teams produced the same output in three quarters.

Both teams were locked in 20-all standoff in the first quarter as Romar Desusa led Basecom with 10 points and Mark Binguan helping out with six markers, while Gustilo delivered eight points for JSY.

JSY outplayed Basecom in the second quarter to take a 41-31 lead as Victor Go Jr., Bobby Penascosa, and Richard Uy hit their mark while Dennis Gamboa and Robbie Jalandoon kept the points coming for Basecom.

In the final quarter, the duo of Jalandoon and Desusa produced a combined force of 19 points to cut the deficit to four but the rally was foiled by the outstanding individual performance by Gustilo, who scored 16 points, half of them from the free throw line.

Helping out the cause of JSY were Eugene Tsai and Victor Go Jr. in the frontline as they made it hard for Basecom to penetrate the shaded area, giving good picks and screen by the big men, freeing up Gustilo for basket drives.

In today's semifinals, Sweet Crystal will go up against AACI Trading in the first game while JSY Transport will face unbeaten AACI Farms in the second game.*with a report from Stephen Tan

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