No loafing off, Estetika beat Le Apple

Yee Chun Leong

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Friday, August 6, 2010

Le Apple Bakery succumbed to their second straight defeat with a 68-65 loss to Estetika last night in Group C of the 2010 Sultan's Cup at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat.

Boasting players set to represent the Sultanate in the veteran Category at the upcoming 2010 Borneo Cup, which Brunei is hosting from August 13-15, four players notched double figures with Rosli Said pouring in a game-high 22 points. Lim Eng Ann added 12 points, all coming from beyond the arc, while Tony Tan and Ho Poh San each chipped in 11 points to a losing cause.

Jerold Pascua, meanwhile, topscored for Estetika with 19 points and Junard Presado scored 10 in the victory.

"They are a young team compared to us and we lost out on our stamina. They continued to run while we couldn't keep up. Our performance was not very good but it was definitely better than our first game," said Rosli, the captain of Le Apple Bakery, in an interview with The Brunei Times, after the loss.

"We were unlucky that we had two straight turnovers towards the end that cost us the match but I think we're fine with our performance for the Borneo Cup. We were passing better but we'll definitely need to improve further," he said.

The game started out with a battle between Rosli and Pascua. Both players had the hot hands early with Rosli putting 10 points on the board while the latter pouring in 13. Estetika were leading 14-11 with three minutes to play in the opening period before Rosli fired back-to-back threes to take the lead for Le Apply Bakery.

However, a steal by Pascua led to a buzzer beating fastbreak that left Estetika facing an 18-22 deficit heading into the second quarter.

Le Apple Bakery responded by pounding the boards while their opponents struggled at the offensive end. Estetika were penetrating the paint but couldn't get their shots to fall. Despite this, they were able to draw fouls off their opponents to head to the charity stripe. The game was close but it was Le Apple Bakery that struck ahead 38-33 at halftime.

Estetika had it good once the game resumed after the break as they managed to hit their first three shots. They finally grabbed the lead at 46-44 midway through the stanza with a layup courtesy of Presado. Read More…

Source: The Brunei Times