Cabatu shines as Patriots edge Slingers

Manila Philippines-JunJun Cabatu came off the bench to fire 11 points,including five in the clutch as the Philippines Patriots pulled off a gutsy 62-59 win over the Singapore Slingers for share off the lead in the AirAsia in Pasig over the weekend.

The 6 foot 5 Cabatu,left open by the Sloopy Slingers defense,hit a triple gave the host a 60-56 cushion with 64 seconds left in the contest

The former La Salle standout then socred and a drive in the closing seconds,completely dashing on the hopes of the Slingers,who moved within one for the last time on Al Vergara three pointer,59-60.

Co owned by harbour Center owner Mike Romero and Tony Boy Cojuangco,The Patriots sealed the wins after Singapore Ng Han Bin bungle a three points shot in Singapore last offensive play

The victory thus keep the Patriots in step with the Chang Thailand slammers who scored a 76-59 win over the Bruenei Baracudas

The victory came into heels of the Patriots 71-62 romp over the Baracudas

"our defense held on Singapore's import Marcus Skinner and Kyle Jeffers to 12 and 10 points respectively,after both scored 19 points in the team's 94-93 win over Indonesia Satria Muda Britama last week.

The Patriots also fashioned out the win minus import Anthony Johnson,who sustain a harmstring injury

Bennedict Fernandez and Egay Billiones topscored for the Patriots with 12 and 11 points.and Donald Little the other RP import,tallied seven points and nine rebounds but made 11 turnovers

Point guard Warren Ybanez layup with barely two minutes left in the games shoved the host to a 54-53 lead the Fernandez buried triple that made it,57-53 with 1:27 to go.

Leo Avenido,another filipino import Slingers,led all scored with 15 points.

The Philippines Star