Balleros pound Hasaqur 73-63 as Tigers, LCC and Bisdak win – De Guzman ‘MVP

This news has been read 6757 times!

Balleros team
Balleros team

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 12: In the KPBA Conference series over the weekend, the Balleros squad made a point for experience in their 73-63 game1 victory over Hasaqur at the Sultan Centre Sports Complex in the Qadsia Club, Hawally Friday afternoon.

Tesla poured in 29 points while Norman and Donnis each had 12 points. Tesla scored eight of his 29 points in the final quarter leading to the Balleros victory in the 5’81/2” series.

Featuring in his second game of the season for the Balleros side, Tesla managed to connect on four of his five shot attempts while also staying visible in the middle to assist team mates in finding the hoop to further keep Balleros at bay on their way to a convincing win despite making just 5-of-21 three-pointers.

But it was Hasaqur forward Alvario who set the tone of the game by scoring 10 points in the first half alone. Alvario made a double-double, having finished with 19 points and 13 assists for the Hasaqur side, despite the side having turned the ball over nine times leading to 12 Balleros points. Mario added 12 points to the Hasaqur counter.

Top seed Balleros kicked off their campaign opening up a 2-point first quarter lead, 16-14 on the backs of Donnis and Norman, but Hasaqur managed to close the gap as Mario partnered with Alvario in a hardnosed attack and rally that brought Hasaqur fans to their feet, drowning the entire court in deafening noise.  But Balleros’ second quarter blitz sent them rocketing to the end of the first half with an impressive 11-point gap at 33-22.

Donnis personally scored 10 and also made a driving layup at the tail end of the first half while also leading the effort in the continued rally to further widen the gap to twelve points in the third round.

As the ball flew both ways, the final quarter became the decision point with Hasaqur veteran trio Alvario, Mario and Romel peaking for their side to roll back some of the Hasaqur deficit as they took turns to aim at the Balleros hoop with pinpoint precision. Alvario led the charge with two jumpers and a fast layup that effectively reduced the Balleros advantage to 10 at 73-63 at the close of the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, in the next game featuring Tigers vs Zyrox, both sides were at each other’s throats from start to finish. De Guzman, Owren and Jay led the Tigers effort with 33, 19 and 15 points apiece while Domingo, Jesalva and Villaflor led the Zyrox effort.

But the highest scorer in the game turned out to be Tiger’s De Guzman who poured in a whopping 33 buckets, more than a third his side’s haul with the next highest scorer after him contributing 19 points.

De Guzman was voted MVP of the game that swung both sides on the court until a Tigers player made a driving move to the opposition basket and just when he shot, the referee flagged him down for traveling. Zyrox was trailing Tigers by 7 points, 82-75 with 4 seconds left on the clock. Tigers hung on to the finish with the scores remaining the same at the buzzer. LCC beat LXG Knights 76-52 in the penultimate while Bisdak won 57-46 against IFSI in the final game of the weekend.

By Iddris Seidu

Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 6757 times!

Related Articles

Back to top button

Advt Blocker Detected

Kindly disable the Ad blocker

Verified by MonsterInsights