Juan Maratita was the Ol Aces’ star of the night player after connecting the ball with the basket to gain 10 steady points for the Ol Aces whilst teammate Ryan Lisua chipped in his six pence to gain a steady 14 point lead over the G-Stars, 26-12.
Clayton Kenty of the G-Stars entered the second quarter with high spirits and led the way for the G-Stars after bagging 7 points in his effort to close the 14 point gap made in the first quarter. Teammates Christian De Vero and Marvin Rabauliman tried to help Kenty out by grabbing rebounds and driving it on home for 4 points a player. The G-Stars then built a defense line to keep the Ol Aces at bay for the rest of the quarter with two minutes of complete silence for both teams. Though G-Stars were not able to close the gap, they nicked it down to 10 points by half time.
Both teams entered the second half of the game with one common goal; to hand the defeat to their foes. The Ol Aces were only able to score a total of 10 points in the third quarter while the outlook seemed so much better for the G-Stars for Eddy Manalili led them to a scoring rampage after fending off 8 points in the first four minutes of the third quarter while teammate Marvin Rabauliman bagged another 6 points as well to close the gap with 51 points all by the time the siren rang to seal the third quarter shut.
Both teams anticipated the fourth quarter after the G-Stars caught up impressively. Trevor Ogumoro was able to breach past the G-Stars’ defense multiple times to bag 6 points. On his fourth way down the court he was fouled and was given two charities one of which he connected successfully. Juan Maratita, Ton Web, and Luther Taylor jumped into the band wagon with Ogumoro and were able to snag 4 points a piece in the last critical moments of the game.
The G-Stars fought back fiercely after Marvin Rabauliman snagged 5 points while teammates Christian De Vero and Jr Concepcion collared 4 points a piece. Unfortuantely as the final seconds ticked down this was not enough to defeat the Ol Aces as the damages made in the earlier quarters took its toll. The G-Stars were three points short in defeating the Ol Aces, 72-69.
Scores:
Ol Aces- T. Ogumoro 20, J. Maratita 18, T. Web 10, R. Lisua 8, L. Taylor 7, W. Tomokane 5.
G-Stars- M. Rabauliman 18, C. De Vero 15, E. Manalili 14, C. Kenty 13, J. Concepcion 9.
