Nougat captured the 2016 Next5Hoops Elite Division championship with a thrilling 82-80 win over Iloilo Basketball Community in a final which saw no more than five points in the last two periods.
The crown punctuated Nougat’s dominant season where it finished way ahead of the pack in the elimination round of the tournament with just one loss across seven games.
But IBC, which finished third in the elims, proved to be a worthy competitor in the knockout final, hanging tough down the stretch and owning the biggest lead of the game at 12 early in the second quarter.
Nougat needed a quick 10-0 run to douse IBC’s momentum and close the gap to one at halftime, 44-45, in the game held at Asia Pacific College Gym in Makati.
What followed in the last two-quarters was an intense back-and-forth battle as both sides wrestled with the lead.
After trailing by five just two minutes before, Nougat found the right push and went on a 10-3 run including four unanswered points in the last 1:38 of the game that sealed the win.
Francis Camacho gave Nougat its biggest lead in the payoff period, 82-78, with a booming trey with 1:23 left.
He finished with 15 points and four rebounds and was named Most Valuable Player for leading his team.
Three players from IBC’s side scored more than Camacho but their efforts were for naught as the team fell short down the stretch, failing to score a field goal in the last 3:08 after making it 77-72.
Jerald Bautista led all scores with 20 that went on top of seven rebounds, seven assists and five steals but was hampered by 10 whopping turnovers. Cedric Ablaza added 18 points and seven rebounds while Ralph Jeffrey Deles had 16 markers and nine boards.
Camacho, meanwhile, also had solid back up with Rama Morales adding 13 points and Alvin Vitug and Milan Vargas chipping in 10 apiece in Nougat’s championship performance.
While no team had a glaring edge over the other, Nougat managed to take advantage of IBC’s 24 turnovers by turning it to 17 points—8 more than the opponent’s output.
