Shooting guard Jojo Evangelista sizzled in the second half to lead the Philippine Consulate team to a convincing 59-50 victory over Hangtime in CMP Sports Basketball League Season 1 at the Jumeira Baccalaureate School on Saturday.

Evangelista finished with a near double-double performance, scoring 19 points and dishing out eight assists. He also made a couple of clutch baskets in the closing minutes to secure the win for the Philippine Consulate, whose team is composed of consular staff and their family members.

Philippine Consulate started slowly but still managed to establish a four-point lead at the end of the first and remained ahead, 25-21, at the break.

Evangelista, named player of the game, opened the third quarter with a triple and followed it with another basket to give his team their biggest lead of the night, 30-21. But Philippine Consulate could not create a bigger margin as Ryan Gulapa and Vincent Mission erased the deficit with a barrage of outside shooting.

A triple by Gulapa in the middle of the third period enabled Hangtime to grab the lead for the first time, 35-33, before Philippine Consulate reclaimed the driver’s seat by two at 42-40 going into the final quarter, en route to a nine-point victory.

“We have to give credit to Hangtime for putting up a good fight but we made some adjustments in our defence and closed the outer lane for their outside shooters in the fourth period to secure the win,” Philippine Consulate coach Consul Giovanni Palec told Sport360.

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Aside from Evangelista, two more Philippine Consulate players scored in double digits: Donnie Pimentel and Marlon Villapando contributed 13 and 10 points respectively, while Justine Cortes, son of Consul-General Paul Raymund Cortes, finished with five markers. Gulapa, Mission and  Jeremy Cortez had 13 points each for Hangtime.

Elsewhere, in the inter-hotel division, Raffles Dubai’s trio of shooting guards Joseph Racho, Egan Puno and Siob Gorospe were too much to handle for Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah. The trio combined for 64 points to lead Raffles to a 67-62 victory over Waldorf.

Racho and Puno finished with 23 points each while Gorospe added 18 markers, including four triples to ensure Raffles’ win on their first game. Sandy Jacobe and Serbian centre Aleksander Durovic led Waldorf with 23 and 16 markers respectively.

In another game, Claudio and Yabut combined for 30 points to lead Bobcats to an overwhelming 70-53 win over Duphil.

Scores:
Phillippine Consulate 59 – Jojo Evangelista 19; Donnie Pimentel 13; Marlon Villapando 10; Justine Cortes 5; Bong Fernandez 5; Marco Flores 2; Mark Castro 2; Ronel Mendoza 2; Joel Pimentel 1
Hangtime 50 – Ryan Gulapa 13; Jeremy Cortez 13; Vincent Mission 13; Yonel Ornopia 5; Tito Nidea 4; Alfred Ordoña 2