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Ghasias Brothers leads rained-out match vs Flip Top
Ghasias Brothers’ Gyles Ruluked slices through the defense of Flip Top’s Jun Fidelino, left, and Mike Arciaga during the third quarter of their game in the semis round of the DLX caging last Wednesday night at the Gualo Rai Basketball Court. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
The game will continue tonight with a Ghasias Brothers’ victory moving the team closer to the finals. Ghasias won its first semis match against Ali’i, 94-81, while Flip Top prevailed against SSFM, 84-81, to boost their finals bid. Only the Top 2 teams after the round-robin semis will advance to the championship game and the fight for the two finals berth is down to three teams since SSFM lost to Ali’i (via forfeit) in the first game last Wednesday. The eliminated SSFM will play its last game tonight against Ghasias Brothers, while Flip Top and Ali’i will collide in Saturday’s crucial match that will decide the finals cast.
If Ghasias wins the continuation of its match over Flip Top and also tops SSFM, the former will march into the finals first and leave the defending champion Ali’i and Flip Top to battle for the remaining finals spot. If Flip Top steals the victory tonight, but loses to Ali’i and Ghasias wins over SSFM, there could be a three-way tie for the Top 2 spots. Organizers have to announce how the tiebreak will be decided.
To grab the upper hand and the win against Ghasias Brothers, Flip Top must find a way to stop Freddie Pelisamen, who had collected 44 points when the game was called off due to rain.
Pelisamen made his presence felt early in the match, drilling 9 points to hand Ghasias Brothers a 22-13 advantage at the end of the first period. Ghasias led by as much as 12 points in the opening canto before Jun Estolas started hitting his mark and prevented an early Ghasias Brothers breakaway.
Estolas kept going in the second quarter, trading baskets with Pelisamen, as Flip Top managed to tie the match, 39-all, before the Ghasias Brothers main gunner scored his team’s last 5 points to close the half with a 46-41 lead.
The Estolas-Pelisamen showdown continued in the third with the latter dropping 12 more points, including Ghasias Brothers’ last 7 to help his team retain the driver’s seat, 71-66. Estolas countered with 9 points and got some help from Ron Gamboa and Mike Arciaga to keep Flip Top afloat, entering the fourth quarter.
In the payoff period, Estolas went cold in the opening minutes before firing Flip Top’s last three baskets, while Pelisamen was still unstoppable. Pelisamen had scored 14 points in the fourth before the game was halted. Gyles Ruluked backed up Pelisamen, delivering 6 in the first eight minutes of the fourth period.
