Cabalen\/Noni withstood MAFEA\/Ali\u2019i Konflikt\u2019s repeated rallies to pull off a 97-91 victory in the UFO Inter-Organization Basketball Friendship League 2011 Bud Cup on Tuesday night at the TSL Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
The win was the third in four games for Noni, moving the team up from fifth to a tie for third place with Bayani\/Mobil. Ali\u2019i Konflikt continued its on-and-off performance and dropped to a 3-4 mark.<\/p>\n
Ali\u2019i Konflikt played catch up all night and was frustrated as every time it closed in, Cabalen found ways to move out of trouble with Wowie Abuel, Kae Bernardo, and Lerio Pagarao alternately drilling rally halting baskets.<\/p>\n
Abuel hit back-to-back triples in the closing seconds of the third quarter, turning a slim 64-63 lead to a 70-63 cushion entering the payoff period.<\/p>\n
Noni made it a nine-point lead midway in the fourth, 85-76, but Junar Guiab and Elmer Esdrelon scored four quick points to stay afloat. Pagarao and Bernardo answered with their own four-point swing to widen the gap anew, but again Ali\u2019i Konflikt kept fighting. This trend continued in the next four minutes of the fourth canto before Ali\u2019i Konflikt run out of options in the last minute of the match.<\/p>\n
A completed 3-point play from J.R. Barrios moved Ali\u2019i Konflikt within three, 88-91, 59.6 seconds to go in the game. Pagarao upped the lead to five with a difficult fall-away jumper and when Ali\u2019i Konflikt took possession this time it failed to produce when Guiab missed a short jumper.<\/p>\n
With the clock ticking down, Ali\u2019i Konflikt was forced to give up fouls, but sent the wrong guy to the foul line, as Bon Tamayo calmly sunk both free throws for Cabalen\u2019s 95-88 advantage, with 43 seconds left on the clock.<\/p>\n
Ali\u2019i Konflikt muffed its chances to slice the lead when it faltered on its three attempts. Esdrelon\u2019s triple rattled in and out of the rim and Jawn Joyner\u2019s two putbacks also missed the target. Joyner later connected on a desperation three, but it was not enough to bring Ali\u2019i Konflikt back into the game, which Pagarao sealed after going 2-for-4 in the last 20 minutes of the match.<\/p>\n
Pagarao paced Cabalen with 22 points, while Bernardo and Abuel contributed 21 and 19 markers, respectively. Esdrelon top-scored for Ali\u2019i Konflikt with 20, while Joyner and Barrios combined for 29 points. Ivan Devero also finished in double figures with 14, but was scoreless in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Cabalen\/Noni 97 \u2013 Pagarao 22, Bernardo 21 Abuel 19, Yabut 8, Demapan 8, Tamayo 7, Basila 5.<\/p>\n
MAFEA\/ Ali\u2019i Konflikt 91 \u2013 Esdrelon 20, Joyner 15, Devero 14, Barrios 14, Tumaquip 11, Mendoza 9, Guiab 4, Talania 2, Cruz 2.<\/p>\n
Scoring by quarters: 24-23, 48-42, 70-63, 97-91.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cabalen\/Noni withstood MAFEA\/Ali\u2019i Konflikt\u2019s repeated rallies to pull off a 97-91 victory in the UFO Inter-Organization Basketball Friendship League 2011 Bud Cup on Tuesday night at the TSL Sports Complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}