By the Numbers: The Knights Made Sure of It Against Mindoro

The defending champions didn't want to leave anything to chance as they knew that if they were to lose yesterday's important game against the Mindoro Tamaraws, it will cost them of finishing the elimination round atop of the team standings. Fortunately, the San Juan Knights went on a rampage and by the end of the first quarter, the game was already decided as San Juan scored 70 points after the first half en route to a 114-68 victory over the Tamaraws of Coach Justin Tan.

With their 46-point walloping of the Tamaraws, the Knights have already assured themselves of the top spot in the North Division regardless of the result of the game between the Manila Stars and the Zamboanga Valientes on February 10 which means that the Knights will face Pasay in the first round of the playoffs. 

Now, how did the Knights achieve a 46-point win yesterday?

A Dominant Game Right at the Start: 37-15 After the First Quarter

You could tell how San Juan wanted the North Division top spot so badly just by the way they started the game against the Tamaraws. Sure, Mindoro was able to score the first two points of the game on a Mac Baracael field goal but from that moment, it was all the Knights. San Juan rose to a 12-2 lead on a John Wilson trey before Mindoro could also score again- on another basket by Baracael. That basket came with 6:57 to go in the first quarter and before Mindoro knew it, they were suddenly staring at a 22-point hole from which they will never come back from. 

63 Bench Points; A Major Difference

Sure, John Wilson led San Juan in scoring with 16 points on 5 for 11 field goal shooting including a 40% shooting from long distance but what allowed the Knights to build such a large margin and actually kept it was the fact that every player who was fielded by Randy Alcantara contributed. As a matter of fact, the bench of San Juan nearly outscored the entire Mindoro squad by themselves as the Knights bench scored 62 points- led by Joseph Ubalde's 12 points and 9 rebounds. Jhonard Clarito and Andrew Estrella each scored 11 points with Clarito also finishing with 5 rebounds and 4 assists, and Estrella adding 5 assists and 3 rebounds. All San Juan players scored with the lone exception of Warren Bonifacio who grabbed 2 rebounds under his name. 

The Knights Have Everything in Control

Simply put it this way: Mindoro simply had no answer for the way the Knights were playing yesterday. 

The Knights shot 53% from the field while Mindoro could only do 30%. John Wilson and company made 11 of their 24 shots from the three-point line while the Tamaraws only made 1 of their 20 attempts from deep. The Knights were +23 in the rebounds and +32 in points in the paint. San Juan also had a 13-point edge in second-chance points while also winning the battle in fast-break points at 39-18. In other words, the Knights could do no wrong yesterday. 

Photo is from Tiebreaker Times