BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Friday, November 20, 2009
ALC had a balanced offence with Ralph Borja leading the way with 15 points, all coming in the fourth quarter, and Ron Ang contributed 13 points. On the other hand, the trio of brothers led the way for Liga Bumiputera with Hj Md Rahmat with a game-high 22 points while Hj Md Badri and Hj Md Sabri Hj Suhaili each had 11 points.
Both teams started out equally as they exchanged baskets through the quarter. ALC were controlling the boards as well with their height and size advantage. However, Liga Bumiputera edged ahead to take 21-19 advantage into the second period.
ALC then picked up their defence and decided to feed their big man in the low post to score. Chris Mariano, who finished with 12 points, heated up by putting in three three-pointers that helped ALC grab the lead from their opponents at 42-36 going into halftime.
Liga Bumiputera, knowing that only a win would give them a chance of survival to make it into the semi-finals, pushed forward in the third period as they were running the floor well.
A few defensive lapses at the ALC end meant that Liga Bumiputera closed the gap to within 55-57 heading into the final stanza.
ALC had a couple of defensive stops while Liga Bumiputera were failing to convert at the offensive end despite getting the open looks.
The inexperience of the all-Malay team showed midway through the period as they were trailing 59-70. ALC were slowing the game down by controlling every possession by winding the clock down. After being scoreless for the first three quarters, Borja ignited his team on offence to sink three three-pointers within the last five minutes to kill the game off.
"The team's performance was okay. It's great that we managed to bounce back from our loss (against Beaver Engineering last Saturday)," said Lito Calina, head coach of ALC, after the victory.
"We have learned from our previous game and corrected all our mistakes. Fortunately for us, tonight (Thursday), we executed all our set plays which we failed to do so previously," added Calina.
When asked on what was key in the victory, Calina replied: "It was our better defence and also teamwork eventhough we're still gelling together."
Meanwhile, Hj Md Sofrian Hj Md Yusof, head coach of Liga Bumiputera, is looking at the bright side of things despite the loss.
"Initially we were here for the experience and to gain exposure but we gave it a good run. We were just oversized and didn't have enough depth on the bench for tonight's (Thursday) game that we lost," said Hj Md Sofrian.
The competition continues on Sunday with IMD B taking on Nueva Ecija Patriot for the 45 years old and above category at 1.30pm.
Playing in the other game are El Tigre Marshalls and Pinoy 1st Edition in Group A at 3pm.
source: The Brunei Times
photo by: Raul Padernal
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