EGS-Solid North rules 1st Mayor Garcia Cup | The Freeman

CEBU, Philippines — The EGS-Solid North banked on the endgame heroics of Mark Yee and Marwyn Taywan to hold off the gritty RKF Iloilo, 71-67, and emerge as champion of the 1st Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia Cup Invitational Basketball Tournament 2025 late Friday night, January 31, at the jampacked Cebu City Sports Institute (CCSI) Gym in Barangay Sawang Calero.

In a thrilling match-up that went down-the-wire, RKF Iloilo was ahead by three points, 64-61, in the final four minutes but Yee and Taywan dropped two consecutive 3-point bombs to put EGS on top, 69-67.

RKF’s Cedrick Manzano had a chance to knot the count and possibly force an overtime but missed a crucial layup.

In the game’s last sequence,Yee got fouled and then calmly sank his twin gift shots with 6.7 seconds left to play to seal the deal for EGS.

Yee paced EGS with a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Kaisus Small-Mastin chipped in with 12 points while Taywan and Encho Serrano combined for 19 points, five rebounds, and eight assists for EGS, which pocketed P300,000 for topping the week-long cage wars.

Meanwhile, Team Khalifa of Tacloban City trounced Fiesta Gas of San Carlos City, 89-77, to settle for third place.

Jancork Cabahug fired 23 points on an 8-of-16 shooting from the field including six 3-pointers, while Elmer Echavez pumped in 21 points to help Khalifa of Atty. Francis Tolibas claim the P100,000 cash prize for finishing as second runner-up.

Joel Lee Yu and Mark Llemit added 11 points each for Khalifa, which banked on a  explosive second-half show to upend Fiesta Gas.

Trailing 10-17 in the early goings, Khalifa staged a daring  counter-attack to forge a 44-all deadlock at halftime.

Khalifa gained a 70-65 headway after three quarters before eventually putting the game to bed with an 87-73 advantage in the dying seconds.  — (FREEMAN)