De Vera’s 19 pts power Kuwait Steel past KAI – Elite Studio dominate Body Building

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KUWAIT CITY, June 25: Smothering defensive work and an aggressive scoring attack in the final quarter inspired by Raymond De Vera handed Kuwait Steel a 74-67 win against KAI Friday afternoon in season six of the PBLK inter-company basketball conference series at the Disabled Sports Club, Hawally.

De Vera powered Steel with 19 points while Castro knocked in 17 to seal the win. KAI jumped into an early lead in the opening half on the backs of Mark Asisten and Gibbs who alternated in the barrages to script a 32-31 first half run.

Steel in the early minutes of the game were gripped by game jitters despite their coach calling a timeout as they fell behind 9-3 just three and a half minutes into the game. Steel struggled to settle down late in the second quarter while the game was still within reach.

KAI’s Asisten started scoring early in the first round, simply blowing through open lanes to the basket repeatedly as his team mates set up around the 3-point line. Steel didn’t have an answer at that point. The wily point guard finished with a team- high 17 points with Gibbs adding 13 and six rebounds.

A Mark Asisten three-pointer, his second in the game, put KAI 4 points clear four minutes into the third but Steel stepped up their defense to regain control and, with De Vera finding his range from beyond the arc, entered the fourth still lagging behind, 43-48.

As Kuwait Steel appeared energized and begun to tighten their grip on the game, Castro poured in a three-pointer and then grabbed a steal off a poor Gibbs pass for a two-pointer to claw back his team’s deficit.

Yet again Steel hit back; an unbroken 5-2 run trimming KAI’s lead to one point before a spectacular De Vera jumper, with less than four minutes left, brought the score line to 71-67 for Steel. And with just under two minutes to play, De Vera extended the lead for Steel draining a three-pointer to make the final scores 74-67 at the buzzer.

Meanwhile, in the next inter-company game, Elite Studio dominated the first half, 22-15, 29-14 to beat Body Building 85-72. Body Building, who had a poor start to their campaign, trailed by 7 points at the close of the opening round, then again by 15 points in the second quarter.

But a rally in the third ignited by Tirso saw the Body Builders’ scores edge up, even as they continued to be bombarded from the field by Elite’s Quirao and his crew. Quirao finished with 21 points.

A 6-point fourth quarter play by Elite’s Quirao was followed by 12 more in the round, capped by a series of two-pointers down the stretch to extend the Elite lead. Ramirez got the final four points of the fourth quarter, making a pair of free throws after he was clobbered intentionally on a breakaway by Body Building’s Tiomico, and then banking in a jumper that made it 85-72 to close the game in favor of Elite Studio.

In the final game, Beltran and Quirubin each had 20 and 16 points, Beltran scoring nine of his haul in the final quarter as Pirates overcame a first round inertia to beat Saveco 83-69 in the inter-company series. Playing in his fourth game of the season, Beltran connected on three of his 3-point attempts in the fourth as Pirates kept Saveco at bay. Salazar scored 19 points and Flores added 10 as Saveco lost the game despite making 7 of nine 3-pointers.

By Arab Times Staff

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