Sharks hail Leones king

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Sunday, August 22, 2010

GEVE LEONES put up an MVP performance to steer Sharks to a 95-90 victory over tournament favourites, Palm Cafe, in the final of the 2010 Sultan's Cup at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat last night.

"I was just trying my best to get my team the win. Ipicked up a slight injury to my right leg in the third (quarter) which limited me. But I just kept trying and it was good to get things going late on in the fourth period," said Leones, in an interview with The Brunei Times, after the triumph.

The 6ft 1in Filipino poured in a game-high of 36 points to pace the Sharks and Elvin Requintin contributed 24 points while Aries Castro chipped in 15 points in the win.
On the other hand, Marjomar Aying topscored for Palm Cafe with 29 points while Don Mordeno and Vincent Superio poured in 17 and 16
points respectively in a losing effort.

Sharks came out firing on all cylinders running the floor well on defence and were getting it done inside the paint on offence.

Meanwhile, nothing was going right for Palm Cafe as they failed to set on offence. This saw them trail 11-2 midway through the opening period.

Sharks were also knocking down shots from the outside and eventually opened up a lead as large as 11 points.

Aying then got his act together to score for Palm Cafe that saw them face a 25-19 deficit heading into the second quarter.

Palm Cafe were not getting back on defence fast enough as Sharks were throwing long outlet passes to score on fastbreaks.

Sharks continued to penetrate to the hoop and were drawing fouls off the Palm Cafe bigs that saw both Reggie Malinao and Fred Palaspas each with four fouls before the end of the second period.

They were also exploiting the mismatch in Palm Cafe's man-to-man defence. This helped them extend their lead to 51-41 at halftime.

However, the 6ft 4in Mark del Mundo arrived after the interval to provide height for Palm Cafe.

Del Mundo helped them pick up the rebounds and cut Sharks' lead to a single basket.

Sharks were in trouble when Requintin picked up his fourth foul in the period and this allowed Palm Cafe to tie the scores at 70-70 going into the final stanza.

Palm Cafe continued on their comeback and Mordeno finally gave them the first lead with eight minutes left on a trey.

Both teams fought neck and neck in a see-saw battle. But Leones would catch fire late on for 11 in the period that helped his team stick ahead.

The match did see a controversy with Aying slipping and meeting the deck on same spot on two possessions due to rain water while driving to the hoop in the final minute.

But, Apollo Bibat would ice the game with two free throws making it a two-possession game at 94-90 with 16 seconds left.

"I take my hat off to all of my players as they did what they needed to
tonight (Saturday night) which was to play good defence," said Lee Sai
Yuk, the playing coach of Sharks.

"Our guard (Alcris) Tiro played good defence on Mordeno. But the key to the win was that the trio of Bibat, Leones and Requintin all stepped up tonight (Saturday night)," said Lee.

Asked on what's next, Lee replied: "We'll just continue to train as a team as we want to be prepared for any upcoming tournaments."

MK Kids Salon bagged the bronze after they defeated Soon Lee-Easyway 100-96 in overtime in the third-place playoff.

Meanwhile, Ranoadidas Rockettes were earlier crowned champions of the women's category topping the table after a round-robin tournament earlier this month.

Source: The Brunei Times