Shadow Lounge Open Rated champion in FBL 7th tourney

Shadow Lounge realized its potential as a champion team by winning the Open Rated Division title at the weekend in the Filsama Basketball League 7th Conference at the NAI Juffali Compound court in Bawadi District here.
Shadow Lounge got its running game going in the second quarter to beat Friendster 86-72 and close out the best-of-three series two games to one. SL won the series opener 99-92 but Friendster forced a decider with 108-98 Game 2 victory.
Roby David played like the MVP (Most Valuable Player) that he is, hitting 15 points and dishing 14 assists at the helm of Shadow Lounge, which opened a 13-point lead, 50-37, at the end of the second quarter, when it went on an 8-3 tear, from 41-34.
Shadow had the game well under control after that, only allowing Friendster to within 7 points, 62-55, with 3:42 left in the third quarter while enjoying leads of as many as 19 points, 80-61, with three minutes gone in the fourth quarter on a fastbreak basket by Ron Magat.
“Our gameplan was to deny passers (to James Smith) the ball. Defense is the name of the game,” said Shadow Lounge coach Boy Corsega when asked by game announcer Willy Cartegena what his strategy was for this big game.
Magat, returning from an injury that sidelined him for almost two months, finished with 16 points, Ryan Aguam had 12 and J. Ubalde added 11 in another solid game for Shadow Lounge like he never was injured in the second game of the series.
Fil-Am Smith, giving his 100 percent as usual, led Friendster with 20 points. Jorge Pascual had 10, Leo Tablante 8 and Diego Domalogdog 7.
Friendster team manager Cris Melebo was looking to complete a championship treble after his Inter-Color and Non-Rated teams had earlier won titles. Instead Shadow Lounge, a team put together by Francis Magat with full support from the restaurant owner Sheikh Majeed Darwish, clinched its first championship in only its second participation in FBL and Corsega also won his first in his comeback after lying low for almost two years.
Also decided Thursday was the Inter-Company Bona fide Division which Danube Himalaya won by beating host Juffali 88-77 in the rubber match of the best-of-three series.
Danube scored eight unanswered points to begin the third quarter and, after the period ended 70-60 in its favor, Himalaya broke the game wide open, extending the lead to 19 points with 2:40 to play as the trio of Gino Cilot, Fuentes and Destreza dictated the tempo of the game.
The awarding ceremony took place after each of the two games ended, bringing down the curtain on another successful conference of the FBL. Commissioner Teng Laguialam, FBL adviser-consultant Mohamed Bayoumi and FBL adviser Jimmy Abdullah Beltran handed out the awards as follows:
Inter-Company Bonafide — Champion Danube Himalaya, 1st runner-up E. A. Juffali Bros., 2nd runner-up Fuddruckers S@H, 3rd runner-up Toyota Aurion; E. Fuentes, E. Destreza (Best Guards), G. Cilot, N. Dones (Best Forwards), J. Agustin (Best Center), Destreza (MVP), R. Martin (Best Coach)
Open Rated — Champion Shadow Lounge, 1st runner-up Friendster, 2nd runner-up Doel Sportswear, 3rd runner-up Wasalak; Roby David, Yoyong Akmad (Best Gaurds), Diego Domalogdog, Kiel Yutuc (Best Forwards), J. Ubalde (Best Center) David (MVP), Boy Corsega (Best Coach).