Pennant champion Capricciosa paid the price of overconfidence when they succumbed to a never-say-die Country House team, 95-85, in Game 1 of the 2004 Inter-Restaurant Basketball League finals held early yesterday morning at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
Country House, fresh from its inspiring come-from-behind overtime win against Angel Wings, stormed out of the gates and scored the first 5 points of the contest before Capricciosa got into the scoreboard.<\/p>\n
Sharpshooting guard Edward Vega was on fire from downtown, connecting for two straight triples to help his team erect its first double-digit spread of the match. <\/p>\n
Vega\u2019s offensive show forced Capricciosa to burn its second timeout of the quarter. But the powwow apparently did little to stop Country House\u2019s blitzkrieg as do-it-all swingman Banjo Basila simply imposed his will on offense and after a quarter of play Capricciosa found itself down, 29-15.
\nCountry House had a bit of a letdown in the middle stages of the second when Capricciosa came charging back to trim the lead to 11 points, 40-29, on a bankshot by Brando Balabis.<\/p>\n
That was the closest Capricciosa would inch to Country House\u2019s lead in the first half, however, as Country House rolled off 6 straight points capped by a finger roll from playing-coach Jake Villanueva.<\/p>\n
After 20 minutes of play, players from both sides headed back to their respective benches for intermission with Country House ahead by a whopping 20 points, 51-31.<\/p>\n
Country House continued to enjoy a hefty lead in early goings of the third until a 3-pointer by Ad Arriola at the 7:44 mark of the canto touched off a searing rally by Capricciosa.<\/p>\n
Capricciosa chopped the once-imposing Country House lead to just 53-42 on an Antonio Roman bucket off an assist by Andy Viola. <\/p>\n
Although Vega and power forward Joy Dayrit hit crucial baskets to stem the tide, there was just no stopping Capricciosa\u2019s resurgence led by former National player Gyles Ruluked.<\/p>\n
The 5\u201911\u201d high-leaper made a putback to make it just a 10-point lead with 53 seconds left in the quarter. <\/p>\n
He then silenced the Country House bleechers by scoring on a fastbreak and hitting a buzzer-beating jumper after grabbing his own missed shot following a 1-for-2 performance from the line, pegging the count at 69-64 at the end of the quarter.<\/p>\n
But what confidence Capricciosa gained in the final minutes of the third was quickly dashed when Country House greeted the start of the payoff period with furious a run.<\/p>\n
Despite three of its key players burdened by foul trouble, Country House reestablished its double-digit spread when Vega faked off Ruluked on a pretty layup.<\/p>\n
Basila then stole a pass and fed Vega for an 81-69 advantage, time down to 3:34 in the ballgame. Capricciosa would no longer threaten after that and Country House celebrated with the 10-point win.<\/p>\n
Basila once again earned MVP of the game honors after filling the stat sheet with 45 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. Vega and Dayrit also shone in the game pumping in 19 and 14 points, respectively.<\/p>\n
Arriola and veteran forward Randy Arconado led Capricciosa\u2019s losing cause with 21 points apiece. Ruluked had a nice all-around game with 20 points, 14 caroms and 7 assists. He, however, faded in the homestretch accounting for only 2 points.<\/p>\n
The 2004 IRBL resumes tonight at 11pm with the third place game between Angel Wings and Jollibee. The second game of the best-of-three championship between Country House and Capricciosa is scheduled for Friday.<\/p>\n
Country House 95 \u2013 Basila 45, Vega 19, Dayrit 14, Villanueva 8, Tabei 3, San Gabriel 2, Lopez 2, Mutoc 2.<\/p>\n
Capricciosa 85 \u2013 Arriola 21, Arconado 21, Ruluked 20, Roman 10, Viola 4, Balabis 3, Molar 2, Navarro 2, Camacho 2. <\/p>\n
Scoring by quarters: 29-15, 51-31, 69-64, 95-85.<\/p>\n
Referees: Ricky Itaas and Arnold Mesa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pennant champion Capricciosa paid the price of overconfidence when they succumbed to a never-say-die Country House team, 95-85, in Game 1 of the 2004 Inter-Restaurant Basketball League finals held early yesterday morning at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/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-84576","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\/84576","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=84576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}