“It was a very competitive competition between my team and Saipan. The level of competition was fierce and it was great competing against them,” said the Falcons’ head coach Torres.
The Falcons achieved the driver’s seat of the game during the first three quarters where Chris Dela Cruz collared 10 points igniting the Falcon’s winning streak. At the bottom of the first quarter the scores were up 21-11 with Guam leading the way.
The Falcons still managed to pull away from the Saints during the second and third quarter of the game with Dela Cruz and teammate Raymark Mariano contributing eight points apiece; four points for the former and latter.
The competition heated up during the fourth quarter of the game with less than two minutes left. The Saints’ Elijah Aughenbaugh attempted to block Roy Eay in mid air resulting in Eay’s head-first landing.
Eay did not get up after hitting his head on the court due to unbearable pain and Aughenbaugh was then sanctioned with an unsportsmanlike conduct resulting in his ejection of the game.
The game continued on with the Falcons still leading the way. Wens Namelo stole the one point lead from the Falcons, 67-66, at one minute and three second left. Namelo was then sanctioned for illegal contact granting Rashaun Blas two shots with four seconds left in the game.
Blas bagged the second charity to save the scores 67 points all at which time the Saints’ coach called a time out.
From half way down the court, side ball, Brandon Aulerio received a quick pass and took the shot behind the three point line miraculously sinking the ball and securing the win under their belts; team Saints achieved a come from behind win but they were not out of the woods yet.
“Elijah Aughenbaugh will be taken out of the tournament. Several times he was caught committing unsportsmanlike conduct and that looks bad in front of our guest teams,” said the coach of the Rollers Basketball tournament in an interview with Variety.
“This is a friendly tournament and what he’s doing is just not friendly,” Diaz added. In his defense Aughenbaugh replied, “But coach, all I did was foul out and play basketball.”
The Variety learned that Joe Diaz brought the matter up to United Basketball Association’s president James Lee who will elevate it to the league officials for further discussion. As of press time yesterday, Aughenbaugh was still ejected from the tournament.
