Inasal romp to victory against On-time
Eagles Alliance subdue ATC Chillis
KUWAIT CITY, March 3: Chicken-Inasal Shooters glided to a third consecutive win Friday at the UAE Exchange Xpress Money PABAK 30th conference games with Reynarte Sampson finishing at 26 points and 11 assists.
There was very little On-Time could do to script an upset, with Chicken-Inasal clearly the favorites in the lopsided game. On-Time were hammered 91-69 with Sampson, Shane Coppin and Diego in control, offering visual treats to the gallery with their rebounds and senses of ball control. The trio scored 26, 21 and 16 with Captain Vince Vidal supporting with 7.
Louis Reyes did the maximum scoring for On-Time at 19 with Felix Lacenta second best at 9. Rounds one and two were ruled decisively by Inasal, 24-17, 23-13 resulting in a 20point advantage opened by the Chicken-Inasal restaurateurs. There wasn’t much in terms of strategy change on the On-Time side to turn the tables after Inasal’s surprising first half deluge which seemed to have caught the On-Time wristwatch specialists offguard despite some flashes of brilliance coming from Reyes, Pascual and Benoc.
Inasal’s momentum seemed to have dimmed somewhat but On-Time failed to step up to fill the void to take advantage of the opposition lapses, thus allowing them to continue in their barrages, albeit slowed. Vidal and his crew, though a little rusty, still posed a threat with points coming in trickles.
With Chicken-Inasal’s dominance not seriously challenged, they went on to clinch the win despite On-Time’s final round rally that resulted in a pitched battle with Reyes scoring 9 in the round. That couldn’t help On-Time in their losing battle.
Barangay-Salmiya on the other hand outpaced GCC-Vipers in another lopsided encounter of the Ajwaa Travel & Tours/TFC/FONZ co-sponsored tournament, 81-58. Knowing the teams to be equals, the crowd erupted to the buzzer. Marlon dealt with 3-pointers right off the bat for Salmiya, scoring 22 totally.
The first two rounds ended 47-29, Salmiya on top, despite Andrade and Perez partnering with their skillful runs that led Vipers to a 1-point advantage at 17-16 in the opening round.
Vipers ruled the third 19-15 but still trailed 49-61 overall. The game went down to the wire in the last round, as Marlon and Cassala wouldn’t let up their score chase for the Salmiya, while Andrade and Perez were eking out foxy points at the other corner, keeping Vipers’ scorecard racing. Salmiya finally triumphed, 81-58.
Elsewhere in the tournament, James Carillo racked up 25 points in the Eagles Alliance’s 83-69 rout of ATC Chillis. Garry Loyola, Joey Talite, Ferddie Cortez, Arnold Sison, Captain Garcia, Toti Catabay, Johpet Mathias, Richard Beltran, Alejo, Sonny Dumol and Alisbo constituted star-studded lineup in the Alliance side that coordinated to script the victory.
The opening round of the game seemed somehow a lopsided affair as ATC Chillis had to take some time to warm themselves into the fray, allowing the Eagles to open a 12-point gap at the turn of the round, 28-16. But as the game progressed Chillis led by Estefan, stepped up their play, fought hard and managed to finish the second quarter 21-17. That was a score line that only narrowed their deficit to 7 points at the turn of the first half, 3845.
Chillis Captain and point guard Chan, partnering with Estefan and Reyes, scripted a third round rally to narrow their side’s 7 point gap to 4, scoring a torrent of baskets. But that was not without reply from the Garcialed Alliance crew, who made some delectable baskets of their own to keep their side in the lead.
Loyola scored 6 points in the round. It was the final round that saw the Eagles soar highest with Cortez and Carillo showing off their star power, scoring 11 and 8 in the final stretch to close the game 83-69 for their side. Estefan, Ventura and Chan were the top stars of the Chillis side.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Marine-Spa, Marina Volts and KOC clinched default wins with 20 points as their opponents, SMDC-FBC, The-One and M-Tag failed to show up for their scheduled encounters of the weekend in the tournament.
Also, in the tournament, Mindweb’s Arthur Pamatmat threw two consecutive 2-pointers to open scoring in his side’s 104-100 edging of Conor Express Cargo in the penultimate game of the day, leading to a 15-point opening round advantage, 37-22 for Mindweb. But the Express Cargo squad quickly got their act together, tightened their defences while maintaining the same level of offense capability, stymieing the opposition’s effort at the basket to finish the second round 22-14, thus narrowing the deficit to 7 points overall.
Nico Legarde and Rommel Dingson led the rally, contributing some valuable 6 and 4 points apiece to the Express Cargo scorecard. Almost immediately entering round three Lito De Guzman replied to the opposition broadside with a 2-pointer for Mindweb with Jeff Luage and Captain Pamatmat joining the fray in the scoring, taking advantage of a leaky Cargo defence to add to the Mindweb scorecard, ending the round with a dazzling performance that culminated in a 20-18 score for Mindweb, translating into an overall 6-point advantage for them at the turn of the third round.
But Cargo roared back fighting furiously in the final stretch with a tighter defence and more aggressive offence to recapture the initiative with an 18-12 result that effectively threw the game into a stalemate at 100-100 for both sides. It was Pamatmat’s jumper that broke the stalemate followed by Jun Aninon’s final 1-pointer at the hoop to close proceedings at 104-100 in favour of Mindweb.
In the final game, Ilonggo Heats went down against Legends 77-86. The Heats squad was humbled by the combined firepower of Rex Reyes and Ivan Beltran, who made 44 points between them. The highly contested match ended 86-77, Legend on top.
The game had a predictable pattern to it with Legend maintaining a comfortable lead in the first three rounds only to lose its steam in the fourth, conceding 15-24 to Heats 21-16, 2114, 29-25 and 15-24. But Ilonggo final round rally came too late as the opposition had already accumulated enough points at the hoop in the first three rounds to win the game.