The Legends (1989 & earlier) hacked out a 72-67 victory over Orix 2001-02 and Terra Dolce 1990-92 outsteadied Shakey’s 2009-11 in an 85-80 thriller of the St. John’s Institute Alumni Basketball Friendship Cup at the Msgr. John B. Liu Activities Center.

Orix opened with a 10-2 lead behind its fastbreak attacks but Raymund Andrade and Daniel Chiu combined to give the Legends an 18-17 first quarter lead.

With Orix getting a measly production of two points from each of the five players on the court, the Legends extended the lead at the half at 39-27 led by Kevin Ramos who scored eight points.

Legends continued to run their set plays and built an 18-point lead with four minutes left in the third quarter, but Orix’s Ton Ton Chua spearheaded the comeback with nine points as the penalty situation of the Legends improved Orix chances as they cut the deficit to 44-53.

The foul prone Legends was again in early penalty situation in the payoff quarter but free throw misses by Orix stymied their comeback.

Without letting up on their aggressive plays, Orix went to Vincent Genovea, Jan Jan Guevarra and Chua to cut the deficit to three points, but a steal and layup by Ramos and a free throw by Chiu sealed the victory for the Legends and assured the team of a quarterfinals slot.

Andrade led the winning squad with 20 points, Ramos and Chiu added 18 and 17 points, respectively, EJ Go made 7, and Atong Villanueva scored 6 points.

Ton Ton Chua and Genovea had 10 points each, Danny Drilon hit 9 points and Guevarra had 8 points for Orix.

In the second game, Terra Dolce established a 26-16 first quarter margin as Peewee Demonteverde delivered 13 points.

Shakey’s rode the shoulders of Jappy Cuaycong but Cris Javelosa was unstoppable in the lowpost as Terra Dolce kept the lead at the half, 42-34.

Neutralizing Terra Dolce’s big men, Shakey’s gained the momentum as Allen Dionela and Luigi Coo scored 12 and 7 points, respectively to narrow the gap at 55-all.

Dionela continued to sizzle in the second half and got support from teammates Carl Suarez and Coo, but Demonteverde was unstoppable in the payoff quarter as he sunk 15 points to lead his team to another win.

Demonteverde finished with 28 points to lead the winning squad while Dionela scored 20 points in a losing effort.

Games today will feature Nitro against Eleven Degrees at 6 p.m., AX Currency will face Gentech at 7:30 p.m., and Shakey’s will slug it out against Orix in the last game.*with a report from Stephen Tan

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