THE KCS Computer Specialist-Mandaue City was crowned inaugural VisMin Super Cup Visayas leg champion on Sunday after defeating MJAS Zenith-Talisay City (89-75) in the rubber match of their best-of-three finals in Alcantara, Cebu.
KCS banked on a spirited second-half effort to complete the upset of tournament favorites Aquastars in the regional tournament, which was rocked by controversy early on.
Al Francis Tamsi, Red Cachuela, Michole Sorela and Ping Exciminiano keyed KCS’ important run in the third canto, turning a seven-point deficit in the early goings of the period into an 11-point cushion, 61-50, heading to the final frame.
The Aquastars could not recover from there as KCS kept pouring it on. Mandaue City stretched its lead to 17 points, 81-64, at one juncture before closing things out.
Mr. Exciminiano, who was named Finals most valuable player after, led KCS with 15 points, five rebounds, an assist, and three steals in the title-clinching win. He averaged 13 points, six assists, and three steals in the three-game series.
Messrs. Sorela and Tamsi added 12 markers apiece with the former hauling down eight boards while Gileant Delator chipped in 10 points.
Patrick Cabahug led the Aquastars with 21 points.
“I told them, ‘let’s try to make history. Let’s give them forty minutes of hell!’” said KCS head coach Mike Reyes of the mind-set they had in the winner-takes-all.
The loss saw MJAS Zenith ending its campaign on a sour note after dominating the competition in the elimination round, going undefeated in 10 games, which also saw it defeat KCS twice with an average winning margin of 14 points.
The completion of the final series, meanwhile, had the VisMin Super Cup seeing its Visayas leg completed after being rocked early in the tournament by allegations of irregular activities by some of its members, which resulted in one member team being banned from the league permanently and some players and team officials fined heavily and handed sanctions.
KCS-Mandaue will represent Visayas in the Grand Finals of the league in August in Tubod, Lanao Del Norte while also pocketing P500,000 given by Ronald Mascariñas, president of league title sponsor Chooks-to-Go.
MJAS-Talisay, for its part, was given P100,000.
Next up for the league is the Mindanao leg. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo