CAMPUS JOURNAL-ROIS MANDAUE
SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2009
In Return to Form, Knights Rout CIC Again
January 17, 2009 - "There might have been some bumps in the road and some weaving and bobbing along their path toward defending their opponents, but the ROIS Knights appear to have emerged from their mini slump relatively unscathed.
The CIC B can vouch for as much after absorbing their first blowout loss to the Knights, this one a 97-63 defeat at the Lapu-lapu Basketball Gym in a Saturday matinee game that started as "embarrassing," in the words of Coach Clint Mondano, and ended humbly with Marco Antonio and Erik Gjengaar on the bench for the second half.
Marco Antonio scored 16 of his 27 points in the first half and Adrian Armenion and Erik Gjengaar combined for 35 points in abbreviated appearances. The three sat out the fourth quarter, except for a two-minute stint from Marco. Wisdom Ceniza also sat out the final quarter.
As they sat watching the string play out on another victory.
"First of all, I was just totally embarrassed about our performance," Clint said. "You know, it starts with me and it goes down to our main players. I think it was an embarrassing start to the game and I decided to go in another direction today."
With their days over prematurely in a game already decided.
"Obviously, we have a lot to work on," Justin said.
The victory was the first for the Knights (1-1), which started the tournament in a surprising line-up.
Perhaps, for the CIC B (0-2), their circadian rhythms were collectively out of whack because of the early start. Maybe, they peeked ahead to their games as the team just got their break on this tournament.
The dominant Knights seem to have returned, a team that does not just beat its opponents but slams the door on them early and firmly.
Knigths Coach Clint Mondano instructed his team to look at this three-game stretch - two games each against the team as a mini playoff series.
"From our vantage point, we didn't look at this thinking it was a big game," Fredrich said. "We were going to go out there and play them like we did in FBL. They're a team that has been playing well together for most of their games, so we didn't want to let them start the game off with a lot of confidence."
Any confidence the CIC B had was quickly lost.
The Knights opened the game with an 18-2 run, then outscored the CIC by 39-24 in the second quarter. Through much of the first quarter, the Knights backup Job Ramos, Paolo Trayvilla, Wisdom Ceniza and Justin Daomilas had outscored the CIC with his 7 early points.