Beaver late show downs ALC

BEAVER ENGINEERING left it till late to defeat Aziz Latif and Company (ALC) 80-72 last night in Group B of the regular seven stars category of the LBC Cup at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat.

Vincent Superio had a game-high 38 points for Beaver Engineering and Ace Castro chipped in 15 points.

On the other hand, Alex Caling led ALC with 14 points while Ron Ang and Ralph Borja each contributed 11 points to a losing cause.

ALC started out better of the two teams running the floor well to put points on the board through fastbreaks.

This helped them to open up a 21-13 lead heading into the second quarter.

Beaver Engineering were banking on Superio as he lifted the team on offence, penetrating to the basket.

ALC were controlling the boards with their height advantage, but their opponents had reduced the deficit to within 33-32 going into halftime.

Beaver Engineering picked up their defence in the third quarter to contain ALC's fastbreaks, but they remained down at 36-37 heading into the final stanza.

ALC went cold from the field and collapsed in the final period as they couldn't find any rhythm on offence.

Beaver Engineering, meanwhile, continued to execute well on offence and grabbed the lead midway through the period.

They never looked back to head for their fourth straight victory.

"Our opponents were controlling the game for the first three quarters while our shots just didn't want to go in," said Tony de Vera, the head coach of Beaver Engineering.

"I just told the team that the game was not over until the final whistle and we managed to come back and maintained it for the victory," added de Vera.

"I think we will still need to make more adjustments to improve our game but I'm satisfied with tonight's (Saturday's) victory. We just kept trying despite being down for much of the game," continued de Vera.

Meanwhile, Lito Calina, head caoch of ALC felt that they gave the game away.

"We just collapsed in the close game as we lost our focus towards the end," said Calina.

"But we have to take our hats off to our opponents, especially Superio, as they were more determined to win the game," he added.

In the second game, Pinoy 1st Edition picked up their first win with a 90-72 triumph over SOLD in Group A.

Carlo de Luna topscored for Pinoy 1st Edition with 31 points while Jeff Ojena led SOLD with 24 points.

The competition continues today with three games starting with the all-Malay Liga Bumiputera taking on the GILR Wildcats in Group B at 1.30pm.

The second game will see MK Super Kids go up against Nueva Ecija Patriot in the 45 years old and above category at 3pm.

The highlight for today's matches will pit the favourites of the tournament, Palm Cafe, and ABMS in a Group A match at 4.30pm.

The Brunei Times