Friendster easily beat Old Airport Islamic Team 106-83 in the knockout quarterfinal but the spotlight fell on Wasalak during the eighth week action in the Filsama Basketbal League 7th Conference at the NAI Juffali Compound court in Bawadi District here.
Dismissed as a rank outsider, Wasalak told all and sundry it could match up against Open Rated teams after it stunned powerhouse Shadow Lounge in overtime 101-98 in the nightcap Thursday.
Adrian Bulacan played smart basketball to score 23 points including critical threes in the five-minute extra period, Maliksi added 20 and Faico Radiamoda had 16 as the Wasalak team of Ruben Villarosa and Teddy Soriano scored the big win after consecutive defeats.
Except for Roby David and Ryan Aguam Shadow Lounge looked sluggish on this night and not even the arrival of big men Ubalde, Brian Adaya and Elamparo and guard Yutuc in the fourth quarter could stop the momentum of the inspired Wasalak.
Underdog Wasalak dictated the tempo of the game and had the answer each time Shadow Lounge threatened to make a run during the thrilling contest that kept the crowd to its feet until well past midnight.
Bulacan hit two 3-pointers and tossed a fastbreak pass to Silva who outstripped David on his way to the hoop, as Wasalak eased off the pressure with a five-point spread in the dying minutes of overtime play.
Wasalak forced overtime when Kenta Littel converted both free throws off a foul by Madmad Martinez 83-all.
In a singularly brilliant display for SL David led all scorers with 37 points including a quick two on an Ubalde inbound that gave his team an 81-80 spread. After Littel tied the score at 81-all with a split free throws with 24 ticks left David sank two pressure-packed charities for 83-81 after Bulacan fouled him to try to stop the clock with 12 seconds to play.
Littell then slipped through the SL dragnet to collect a pass from Huerto and race downcourt. He missed the fastbreak attempt but drew a foul from Martinez, time down to 2 seconds.
In the first knockout game of the tournament pitting the Non-Rated No. 1 of Group A against the fourth qualifier from Group B, Friendster dominated Old Airport with team manager Cris Melebo top-scoring with 17 points that went with the 12 points by Carbonel and 10 by Asperga.
Like Friendster in Group A, Arabian Homes finished No. 1 in Group B with a twice to beat advantage by beating Al Tazaj 89-84 in the first game Friday.
In the Inter-Company Bonafide Fuddruckers and Toyota Aurion both suffered a blow in their bid to reach the final by dropping crucial games Thursday against Juffali 82-67 and Danube Himalaya 109-87 respectively.
The results left Fuddruckers and Toyota at 2-3 and 1-4 in the team standings behind Juffali 4-1, Danube 3-2 and Makati Foods 2-2.
Meantime, Red sealed a best-of-three for the Inter-Color championship with White when it blasted Black to smithereens 131-91 in the first game Thursday.
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