KUWAIT CITY, Feb 6: Suns’ Mike Federon shot 23 points to propel his side to a 54-43 victory over Knights while Expandables eked out a 71-68 win against SM-Mikati at the ongoing PHILBACK Basketball Tournament at the Khalijiya Arabic School in Riggae on Friday.
The eight-game fixtures for the week-end resulted in only five being played as the remaining three were cancelled due to some teams not showing up. But nonetheless, fans were able to go home after having had maximum entertainment from their teams for the week-end.
Results for the games played were as follows:
Balik Islam 86 vs Coolz 81; Rasta 20 vs Parekoy 0; Suns 54 vs Knights 43; Expandables 71 vs SM-Mikati 68; Matrix 73 vs Exo Warriors 68; Moro Eagles 20 vs Panasonic 0; Baker 70 vs JC Net 68; Burger King 20 vs Agam 0.

Despite the low temperatures and rainy weather, it was all sweat and shouts in the indoor court as 5’8” Division group teams Suns sorted things out with the Knights in the day’s opening game. It was a battle for honors especially for the Suns whose record stands at five games won out of nine with four losses. In reality though, both teams remain wallowing in the middle of nowhere on the league table irrespective of who won.
Energized by their victory over Balik Islam in their previous outing, Suns got off to a flying start in the opening game, winning the first quarter 10-7 thanks to #9 De La Cruz and #20 Federon’s beautiful combination, but Knight’s Ramos, Tadena and Garcia led their side’s spirited fight-back with a combined 19 points to slash the Suns’ advantage to four, thus ending the second half 21-17. Ramos and his crew continued their relentless pressure into the third quarter to close the period with a 2-point advantage (31-29).

After a time-out called by the Suns’ coach, they returned with a new strategy of aggressive offense play and solid defense to re-take the initiative in the final quarter leaving the Knights almost completely demobilized on the court and unable to make offensive advances, thus leaving the Suns players to pound in the much needed points to finally win the 54-43 at the buzzer. De La Cruz shot 14, Federon 12 and Alico 10 points in the Suns’ win. Ramos scored a game-high 18 with Tadena and Garcia chipping in 11 and 8 points apiece for the defeated Knights squad.
Balik Islam seemed not to have fully recovered from their defeat last week at the hands of the Suns team but as their game against the Coolz squad progressed, they warmed into the fray and in a few minutes led by Ammar and Fahad to a 24-15 first quarter finish over the vastly outnumbered Coolz squad.
With gallant offense players like Rashed, Jibreel and Ammar scoring 19, 17 and 11 markers, Balik Islam managed to maintain control of the game in the second and third quarters, ending the third quarter with a slim 67-65 score line in their favor. Coolz from that point mobilized with the help of Mario Lopez, Jun Torres and Edwardo Siron scoring 12, 10 and 8 apiece in their ferocious counter attack but could only manage to get close to Balik’s 86 points finally ending the game 86-81 for Balik. Lopez and Torres paced the Coolz boys’ losing effort with 22 and 17 points apiece.

The crowd hardly had time to catch their breaths after the pulsating contest in the previous game before their pulses quickened again in the game that followed between Expandables and SM-Mikati, a match that looked like a humdinger from the start when the former raced to a 27-22 lead at the halftime break on the combined efforts of Oscar Bamba, Rsty Gavanueva and Jojo Hisuala..
Unfazed, the SM-Mikati boys unleashed a blistering rally led by the trio of Trinida, Bajar and Santos that cut down the deficit to single digits in the second half but ran out of ideas as the Expandables’ coach called for a time-out for a strategy meeting which saw the game turn completely in their favor . Bamba led Expandables with 19 while Galanueva had 15, Roy Vilera 9 points, with Trinidad Ramirez, Santos and Vilones combining to contribute 28 points to the SM-Mikati loss.

Below are the team standings in the 5’8” Group:
Team P W L
Tropang-TH 7 7 0
Burger King 7 7 0
OIC Bolts 9 8 1
Azkals 7 6 1
Matrix 10 8 2
SM-Mikati 8 6 2
Expandables 8 6 2
Hasawi 8 6 2

Matrix’s Edward Gueco, led three other colleagues in double figures, scoring 18 with Majica making 13, Tenerife 11 and Mariocoso 10 points in their endeavor to silence the vociferous Exo Warriors in a game four encounter that saw the latter defeated 73-68. Alcantara, Ramos, and Domingo tallied 13, 11 and 10 points each for the Exo-Warriors team who looked a bit rusty due to their absence from the league for some time.
The crowd got a respite in the fifth and last game which saw the Baker Group wear down an undermanned and underequipped JC Net Tailors squad to post a narrow 70-68 win over the latter, with Dante Reyes dominating the shaded lane while Danlord Villarama and Dave Catubig alternated from the perimeter. Rene Reloza, Steve Guinto and Alex Escalona, however did their part for the JC Net tailors, scoring 11, 9 and 8 points apiece in their losing battle.
Burger King was awarded declared the winner in their scheduled match against the Agam Group in which the latter was a no-show. Similarly the Rasta squad also clinched a default win when Parekoy failed to show up for their game. Moro Eagles also clinched a default win with Panasonic failing to show up.