With Hirai Nakamori’s opening jumper, Ayaka Shiokawa’s perimeter shot and Honami Inui’s two consecutive two-pointers, Red Impulse put up the lead in the early few minutes of the game.
In this particular time, the Japanese cagebelles proved just enough that basketball is not only for tall players.
Despite the taller host team, they grabbed defensive rebounds using their backs to clear the way and secure the ball back to the offensive.
Lia Rangamar finally made the best use of her height to have their share of the ball and led the rally midway to the end of the first quarter hitting a pair of layups and three free-throw shots to take the lead.
Jaime Mendoza scored seven of her 17 points including an early three-pointer in this quarter.
Duenas heated up in the second quarter with her first three-point shot and Glorily Williams added four of his eight points to help MISO All-Stars maintained the lead towards the half break.
During the friendship meet last year, MISO All-Stars’ strong defense and Rangamar’s shooting streak came too late in the final quarter when Red Impulse was already finishing them off to win the 2009 title.
Last Saturday, Red Impulse played a lot better especially in defense, as they seemed very much aware of the host team’s thirst for revenge.
However, they got exactly what they had anticipated.
Duenas blasted form behind the arc again to open the second half of the game, and she followed this up by two consecutive two-pointers.
Nakamori who controlled the offense made many attempts to close-in by firing long-range shots but her aim went bad.
Rangamar connected a three-point play and the MISO All-Stars stretched the lead to 10 points at the end of the third quarter.
She and Duenas continued the surge in the final quarter. Rangamar had an easy two-points and a pair of fast breaks while Duenas bombarded Red Impulse with two consecutive three-pointers and the MISO All-Stars pulled away leading to their 75-54 victory.
Inui and Nakamori led Red Impulse’s scoring hands with 15 and 14 points respectively.
MISO Boys All-Stars 77, COPSSA All-Stars 74
In Boys 17-and-under, the MISO Boys rallied in the second quarter to tie the game, then, protected the lead all the way to the ball game to beat COPSSA All-Stars, 77-74.
With Jared Sablan and Jeon Dae Min controlling the offense, COPSSA was leading after the first quarter. Jeon and Luther Taylor scored four of their total points in this period.
However, some kind of miscommunication gripped COPSSA’s offense in the second quarter. This paved the way for the MISO Boys to mount the rally and tied the ball game.
Maratita scored 21 points and Sahjahan Hossain tallied 19 points.
The MISO Boys kept the lead in the final quarter. The COPSSA Boys managed to close-in during the last two minutes but time ran out with the MISO Boys maintaining the three-point lead to win the game.
Scores:
MISO Girls All-Stars 75 – R. Duenas 26, L. Rangamar 20, J. Mendoza 17, D. Joseph 4, G. Williams 4.
Settsu Red Impulse 54 – H. Inui 15, H. Nakamori 14, H. Kinoshita 6, A. Shiokawa, M. Maeike 5, H. Mizuta 4, K. Oida 4, M. Iwazaki 2, Y. Takahashi 2, R. Yamasaki 2.
Quarterscores: 20-14, 35-28, 51-41, 75-54
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