By Adrian Stewart Co
MJAS Zenith-Talisay City Aquastars leaned on the exploits of Darrell Shane Menina to score an 81-73 win over KCS Computer Specialist-Mandaue in the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup over the weekend at the Alcantara Civic Center in Cebu.
The former Mapua Institute of Technology Cardinals standout dropped 25 of his 28 points total in the second half as the Aquastars recorded its ninth victory in as many matches.
Aside from making all but one of his 12 attempts as he went 5-of-6 from three-point territory, Menina also had two rebounds, two assists and four steals in 21 minutes.
Trailing 40-47 late in the third quarter, the Aquastars leaned on back-to-back triples by Menina and a layup by Jaymar Gimpayan from a pass by Menina to take the upperhand at 50-47.
The Aquastars stretched its run further as they widened the advantage to 58-49 early in the fourth quarter but Mandaue managed to come close at 57-62 following a triple by Steve Castro.
Menina, who just averaged 4.6 points prior to this game, regained his shooting touch as he converted 10 of Talisay City’s next 12 points as the lead grew to 74-59 with three minutes left.
“Kilala naman nating lahat si Shane, puputok at puputok ‘yan. It was only a matter of time,” Talisay City head coach Aldrin Morante said on the 6-footer Menina.
Gimpayan also had a solid outing with double-double 19 points and 12 rebounds for Talisay City, which aims to continue its unbeaten run against Dumaguete Warriors (1-5) tonight.
Shaq Imperial and Gileant Delator tallied with 18 and 12 points, respectively, for Mandaue, which dropped to 5-2 after playing minus veterans Joseph Nalos, Al Francis Tamsi, Ping Exciminiano, and Bernie Bregondo.
BOX SCORE:
TALISAY CITY 81- Menina 28, Gimpayan 19, Mojica 6, Villafranca 6, Hubalde 5, Eguilos 4, Casajeros 4, Acuña 3, Santos 2, Cabahug 2, Jamon 2, Mabigat 0, Cuyos 0, Dela Cerna 0.
MANDAUE 73 – Imperial 18, Delator 12, Octobre 9, Mendoza 8, Bongaciso 7, Mercader 5, Roncal 4, Solera 4, Castro 3, Cachuela 3, Soliva 0.
Quarterscores: 17-17, 36-39, 58-49, 81-73./ASC, WDJ