The No. 1 waiting finalist with a twice to beat advantage, Areesh never gave challenger Pacific Storm a chance, winning by a proverbial mile 1,063-947 in what turned out to be the finale of the final stepladder matches.

Pacific Storm won the three-team shootout in the first match of the stepladder and then gained a crack at Areesh by beating No. 2 D’ Barkads in a close match 988-977, as the trio of Ray Thompson, Abet Durado and Gary Misa hit 200 games of 242-237 and 213. Hadi Pacheco and Bher del Rosario added 198 and 194.

D’ Barkads had Mark Hernandez as the main man with 248 followed by Gerry Tano and Leo Edejer at 211 and 209. Mio Centeno with 198 and Obie Ycasas with 175 completed the scoring.

The night began with a sudden death shootout between Pacific Storm, Cannon Balls and Parachutte Hair Cream, the third-, fourth- and fifth-placed teams in the championship round.

Pacific Storm won hands down at 1,051. Cannon Balls made 921 and Parachutte 970.

Pacific Storm had flirted going all the way to the title after taking out D’ Barkads only to be rudely interrupted by the in form Al Areesh.

As the scores suggested it was, well, a no contest.

That Areesh had barely warmed up for the match against a fired-up Pacific Storm squad seemed a non-issue.

In a steady display of firepower Gerry Mandanas top-scored for Areesh with 252, Andy Yumena shot 227, Archie Santos had 226, Hero Garcia added 221 and Igna Salgado tossed in 201.

Thompson led Pacific’s losing effort with 259. Durado and Misa had 210 and 207, while del Rosario and Pacheco contributed 198 and 169.

Meantime, league organizer Salgado announced April 1 is the tentative opening date of  the Thursday Night League 5th Season where prizes have been scaled down to the 12th place with the champion team to receive SR9,000.

Final team standings

Champion Al Areesh, 1st runner-up Pacific Storm, 2nd runner-up D’ Barkads, 3rd runner-up Parachutte Hair Cream, 4th runner-up  Cannon Balls, 5th runner-up Boleros, 6th runner-up Cool Change, 7th runner-up Hataw-IV and 8th runner-up Al Vencav.