By Robert Balajadia

Two of the most exciting scorers in the league didn’t disappoint on Saturday night as Southern Dolphins April “Speedy” Talledo and St. Paul Warriors Joy “Nova” Pangilinan each scored 28 points, though the defending champion Dolphins got the 61-52 win at the Warrior gym to improve to 2-0 on the season while the Warriors fall to 0-2.

Pangilinan was nearly unstoppable in the first half scoring 18 points with the Dolphins holding on to a slim 33-31 lead. She was riding a hot streak of pouring on 44 points in her season debut against the Okkodo Bulldogs.

Southern then changed their defensive strategy to begin the second half by pressuring Pangelinan the full length of the quarter, keeping her scoreless while holding the Warriors to just four points in the quarter to blow open the game at 50-35.

“We applied more pressure on [Pangilinan]. If we let her go then she can get loose and score 60+ points if she wanted to. When we started to settle down on defense it made our offense even better,” said Dolphins head coach Kevin Sanchez.

Warriors Joy “Nova” Pangilinan gets a layup through the thick of the defense. (photo by Robert Balajadia)

Pangilinan wouldn’t be held down for long as she started to get into rhythm in the final quarter by netting 10 points in the period, almost bringing back her Warriors back.

Talledo did most of her damage in the second quarter where she erupted for 13 points to get the Dolphins out of a scoring drought as they trailed the Warriors after the first quarter. Pangilinan scored 10 in the opening quarter and Talledo is all too familiar with the Warriors star ability to fill up the scoreboard.

“She’s a consistent three point shooter, you have to watch out for that,” said Talledo on Pangilinan’s game. “You also need to watch out for her driving in skills.”

The two went toe-to-toe in the second quarter with each neither of them backing down from the others scoring. Pangilinan hit a three pointer from the top of the key to put the Warriors up 27-23, but Talledo made the lead short lived as she stepped into a three pointer right after Pangilian’s trey.

Talledo then ended the quarter by stripping the ball from Pangilinan while converting a layup, plus a foul, to give Southern the lead in the half.

“We still have a lot of work and we’re most likely not going to get to where we want to be as a team or what we want to be doing until the end of the season because there’s a lot of new girls on the team,” commented Sanchez.

Center Mar Tenorio added 18 points for the Dolphins in the win while Ariel Brown had 12 points for the Warriors.

Other Scores

JFK 51, Harvest 26
GW 53, Sanchez 35
Okkodo 62, Guam High 49
Academy 55, Tiyan 22

PHOTO GALLERY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Dolphins Mar Tenorio gets hacked on a post shot as she fades from the basket. (photo by Robert Balajadia)

Dolphins’ April Talledo attempts a three from the corner. (photo by Robert Balajadia)

Dolphins’ April “Speedy” Talledo contests a jump shot from Joy “Nova” Pangelinan. (photo by Robert Balajadia)

Warriors Joy “Nova” Pangilinan drives to the basket. (photo by Robert Balajadia)