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| Raffy Gusi was unopposed for the South Division Player of the Week. |
By Dugout Philippines
MANILA--Quezon City’s Jefferson Comia was named World Balance Player of the Week for the North Division while Parañaque’s Raffy Gusi was World Balance South Division Player of the Week for the period Nov. 5-11, the final week of the elimination round of the Metro League Open basketball tournament being run under the auspices of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and supported fully by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Comia averaged 25.0 points on a sizzling 58 percent field goal shooting (19 of 33), 5.0 rebounds, 5.0 steals and 3.5 assists in the Junior Capitals two victories over Isang Pateros and Taguig to close out their campaign in the elims for a 7-2 win-loss record and a place in the North Division semifinals.
Comia beat out Caloocan’s Mac Enriquez, Johnnel Rey Bauzon and Nico Principe, and Valenzuela’s Erwin Sta. Maria and Dan Anthony Natividad for the said North Division World Balance-sponsored recognition of the tournament which has “mobile app ng bayan” Barangay 143 as presentor, Spalding as the official ball and Team Rebel Sports as official outfitter.
Gusi was the unanimous choice for World Balance South Division Player of the Week honors as he had a game-high 24 points built around a 4 for 10 3-point shooting and which came with five rebounds and an assist and steal each in the Green Berets’ upset 80-62 rout of Manila last Nov. 6, which made Parañaque’s the only team from the South Division to win a game during the week.
Meanwhile, the Metro League Open playoffs begin Tuesday at the San Juan Gym with host Solid San Juan needing just one win to eliminate Isang Pateros in the 7pm main game and Taguig looking to do the same against Parañaque in the 5 p.m. first game, to forge a winner-take-all South division championship.
The North Division semifinals are slated Thursday at the San Andres Sports Complex with twice-to-beat North No. 1 Manila hosting Caloocan in the 7 p.m. second game while Valenzuela also has the twice-to-beat edge against Quezon City in the 5 p.m. first game.
Manila, Valenzuela, Quezon City and Valenzuela all finished the eliminations with identical 7-2 win-loss records in the North Division but after the PBA quotient system tiebreak was applied, the All-Stars and Workhorses had the superior quotients with their 1.054 and 0.9966 respectively to grab the twice-to-beat incentives against Supremos All-Star (0.9652) and Junior Capitals (0.9852), respectively, in the tournament which also has Synergy 88, San Miguel Corp., World Balance, Frabelle Foods, Summit Mineral Water, Alco Plus, Gerry’s Grill, Excellent Noodles, glitter.ph, SM Supermalls and Nature’s Spring as major sponsors.
The Generals topped the South elims with its 5-4 slate and thus will have twice-to-beat advantage in the division semis against No. 4 Parañaque which had a 3-6 record.
Solid San Juan and Isang Pateros finished the elims with identical 4-5 win-loss records but the former grabbed the No. 2 ranking and twice-to-beat advantage against the latter in the division semis via the winner-over-the-other rule. Solid San Juan defeated Isang Pateros 101-90 in their elims meeting last Oct. 25.
Rubber matches in the division semis are scheduled on Nov. 17, if necessary. Otherwise, the knockout North and South division championship games will be played on that day at a still-to-be-announced venue depending on the division semis winners.
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