Shadow Lounge beats Friendster in thriller

Shadow Lounge refused to buckle under a mighty second half rally by Friendster to hammer out a 75-73 victory in an Open Rated thriller last Friday in the Filsama Basketball League 7th Conference at the NAI Juffali Compound court in Bawadi District here.
The 6-foot-4 beanpole Ubalde shot 24 points, John Rebulado added 18 and Ron Magat had 9 as Shadow Lounge played heads-up basketball all evening to get the win in its return to the Filsama-organized events after its debut last year.
Making the defensive adjustments and benefiting from a lineup that included the likes of Ubalde and Yutuc, Francis Magat’s Shadow Lounge controlled the game and led by as many as 20 points, 49-29, in the second quarter.
But Friendster made the game interesting when it slowly but surely chipped away at Shadow’s big lead. The third quarter ended 59-54 to Shadow Lounge.
Unlike the night before against the same opponent when defensive holes in the fourth quarter led to its defeat in another tournament Shadow Lounge, now under veteran coach Boy Corsega, was never let down this time by a defense that denied Cris Melebo’s Friendster a taste the lead.
Friendster did tie though at 73 on a Basa putback of a free-throw miss by Yoyong Akmad, with 22 seconds to play.
Ubalde then inbounded the ball to point guard Roby David, who atoned for his two missed free throws earlier when he delivered what proved the winning basket.
David exploited the mismatch with Akmad, ran the clock down to the last five seconds and hit the basket after a shoulder fake that left Akmad down on the court.
Friendster coach Amang Catador sued for timeout to work out the final play. Basa inbounded to Diego Domalogdog who could not get off the shot under pressure from two defenders, but managed to pass the ball to Christian Guimpatan, who launched an awkward shot on the left near the basket before Senegalese center Mohammad Jouf grabbed the defensive rebound to preserve Shadow’s win.
A sidelight to the game was the matchup between Fil-Am James Smith and Rebulado with "The Tank" holding his own against Smith as he gave back three in-your-face baskets including one that pulled SL to 44-28 spread with 1:10 left in the second period.
A Friendster turnover with 1:32 to play in which Basa fumbled a strong pass from Akmad and led to a free throw by Ubalde, 71-65, with 65 ticks left, effectively turned the game around for SL.
Elsewhere, Juffali and Fudduckers S@H created a two-way tie for first in Inter-Company Bonafide at 2-1 by beating Danube Himalaya 91-75 and Toyota Aurion 93-82, respectively.
Dela Paz and Nonoy Dones scored 28 and 18 points at the helm of Juffali. Fuddruckers had little trouble dispatching Aurion (1-3), which faces the unenviable task of having to sweep the second round eliminations to have any chance of playing for the championship.
Friendster’s Non Rated team continued to lead the A division at 4-0, beating Unidecor 96-73 in the second game Thursday. Airnet made it a double whammy for Unidecor after it won their match 98-87 in the third game Friday.
In Non Rated Group B, Al Tazaj downed Maya Int’l 71-65 in the nightcap Thursday.
In Filsama Inter-Color, Red defeated Blue 92-77 for its third victory in four games while Black downed Green 99-90.