Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Debut Day in the PBA: First game of the Clickers and First game of Tim Cone as the new Head Coach of Llamados

SHOPINAS DEBUT
As the newest team in the PBA, Shopinas.com Clickers made their debut game against the re-building Powerade Tigers. It may look to be a blow out game in the start but it turn out as a tough competitive game.

As the game started, Clickers showed an early aggressiveness but Powerade slowed them down and Gary David show begin. Explosive start for David in their first game of the season, he scored 12 points in the first quarter alone. Shopinas aggressiveness was gone in the middle of the first quarter when Shopinas main man Ritualo sits down and Powerade used their 2-3 Zone Defense to force the Clickers in low percentage shots. Tigers took that opportunity to run. Powerade ended the first 12 minutes of the game with a big 21-point lead, 37-16.

In the 2nd quarter it was Ritualo's turn to pull his team back to the game. He scored a back-to-back jump shot including a 3-point shot. Espiritu helped Ritualo to lift their team from a 24-point deficit, 40-16. From the 9:40 mark of the quarter Clickers made an 18-4 run and brought their team back to the game and ended the 2nd quarter strong, though they still trail with 13 points, 55-42.

At the start of the second half, Clickers continued their rally with a 9 to nothing run and brought down the deficit to 4 points, 55-51. The trapping "D" of the Clickers worked for them in the 3rd quarter. Jojo Duncil's steady game in the quarter kept Shopinas in the game and with his free throw shots in the 1:40 mark he put the Clickers even closer to the lead of Powerade with only 2 points after the shots of Ducil, 69-67 but again, the Tigers answered back and finished the quarter with an 8-point lead, 71-79.

In the Final quarter, Tigers held their lead tightly never let the Clickers to inch closer. Every run and stop by the Clickers was answered by the Tigers in return and David continued his scoring feast and led his team to their first win of the season, 98-87. David was awarded as the best player of the game with 31 points.

Scoring by Quarter:
16-37, 26-18, 29-24, 16-19


TIM CONE'S LLAMADOS
In the second game, It was the Petron Blaze Boosters went head-to-head against B-Meg Llamados with their new Coach, Tim Cone.

In the start of the first quarter, both team was tight and started slow. B-Meg scored the first 4 points but answered back by the Blaze Boosters with their own 4 straight points after a long 4-minute drought in the opening quarter. After that B-Meg made an 8-0 blast and posted their early big lead 12-4. Blaze Boosters retaliate but not enough and ended the quarter still behind 13-22.

Petron brought down the lead to 3 points in the start of the 2nd quarter 24-27, but B-Meg made another 5-0 run and put another 8-point lead on the board in the 5:15 mark of the quarter, 32-27. Again, the resilient Petron came back with a strong effort from Arwind Santos and they trimmed down the lead to 2 points 32-34. Cabagnot, Santos and Lutz efforts kept them in the game and with a buzzer beater shot of Cabagnot the first half ended with the score of 38-36 in favor of B-Meg.

The intense defense of Petron was the story of the first half plus that B-Meg was still familiarizing the Triangle Offense of Coach Tim Cone.

Petron came out in the start of 3rd quarter blazing hot. Blaze Boosters made a 9 to 0 run in the 10:50 minute of the quarter and have their first taste of the lead 38-40. They continued their run and posted their biggest lead of the game with 7 points, 45-38. There was a big difference in the 3-point shooting, Petron shot, 3 of 7 in the quarter while B-Meg made just 1 in 3 attempts. It was the No.3 overall pick Chris Lutz who made the defensive efforts aswell as in the offensive end to kept Petron in the lead after three quarters, 54-58.

In the opening of the 4th quarter Petron held B-Meg with their sticking defense but Simon carried his team in the final quarter. He converted a 3-point play in the 5:51 of the last quarter and gave back the lead to Llamados, 62-61. From the point, both teams answered every move that each team made. After the 3-point play of Simon, Cabagnot answered by a 3 point shot in the 3:19 mark. Again B-Meg return the favor by a 3-point play of Kerby Ryamundo from a great assist of James Yap. Lutz never gave up and answered again by a 3-point play and brought the lead back to Petron, 69-67. The DEFENSE of Petron again made the difference. Blaze Boosters got the ball back and Barroca made two crucial fouls that led to two free throw shots for Cabagnot, with 58.5 seconds remaining Petron had a 4-point lead, 67-71. Again and again the lethal weapon of Petron, their Defense held up and ended the game with a win, 73-69.

It was the balanced attack of the Blaze Boosters and their Defense that gave them their first win of the season. Cabagnot made 17 points 6 rebounds and 3 assists while Arwind Santos contributed an amazing 18 rebounds and the Best Player of the Game, Chris Lutz scored 18 points, 4 rebounds and 9 of 9 in the free throw line.

Scoring by Quarter:
22-13, 16-23, 16-22, 15-15

Game on Friday
1st Game: Barako Bull Energy vs. Petron Blaze Boosters
5:15pm
2nd Game: Meralco Bolts vs. Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters
7:30pm
@ Ynares Center in Antipolo
LIVE: AKTV 13

No comments:

Post a Comment