(MENAFN- Arab Times) Banta Furniture survived Kuwait Steel's last ditch rally to finish with a pulsating 69- 66 victory in game five on Friday at the PBLK intercompany and 5'8" basketball conferences played at the Khaitan Sports Club. Ace guard Aeriel Pangatungan contributed a game-high 24 points, along with six assists, as the furniture specialists made the most of their massive fan-base to assert their control of the game to the finish despite a ferocious challenge from the opposition. "I felt the rhythm. I had to be aggressive," Pangatungan told the media in an interview after scoring 14 of his points in the second half.
"I tried to come out and be aggressive to start this game off and I was getting looks. I got hot." Forward Louis Rafael added 19 points for Banta on seven-of-11 shooting while big center Rey contributed 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Banta came back from a 1-point deficit early in the third quarter. They came back fighting. "Our backs are against the wall right now. That's the only thing we can do, is come out and play". Banta began the game with a cold shooting display and Kuwait Steel, with their starting five all scoring effectively, raced into an early 7-3 lead in the first four minutes before ending the first quarter with a 17-16 advantage.
Rafael ran into foul trouble early on and was penalized for a third time midway through the second quarter but sharpshooting veteran Glean Damsi came off the bench and sparked a Banta revival as the defending champions struggled to close the gap to 32-31 by halftime. A Devera three-pointer, his fourth in the game, put Kuwait Steel 2 points clear four minutes into the third but Banta stepped up their defense to regain control and, with Pangatungan finding his range from beyond the arc, entered the fourth with a 64-57 lead. Banta appeared to tighten their grip on the game, Rafael pouring in another three-pointer and then grabbing a steal off a poor Estrada pass for a slam dunk to give his team a 68-64 cushion.
But again Kuwait Steel hit back, an unbroken 3-0 trimming Banta's lead to 67- 66 before a spectacular Pangatungan threepointer, with just less than four minutes left, extended Banta's lead further to 68-66. Milben, ice-cool when the pressure was at its most intense, chipped in again with a jumper of his own to put Banta three points clear, 69-66 with two 2.5s left and the defending champions survived the Kuwait Steel scare to win by three points. Meanwhile, in other 5'8" division games, Tuklaw Manalo and Kyong San scored 33 and 26 points to help Avengers breeze past UAS Cybergang 72-64. Javier scored 28 points for UAS while Roque added 20.
In another game, Rated-PG dominated the boards against G-Class Garage to finish at 66-58. The Garage only ramped up their play in the final quarter to close the wide gap but not entirely. John Mina scored 21 for Rated-PG while Abra Vocalan added 17. Archie Estera scored 22 points and Canlas added 16 for G.I.2 Team to beat LDJ Ilonggo 85-80 in the penultimate game of the day. G.I.2 narrowly led in the opening quarter, 17-16, but LDJ rallied into the driver's seat in the second quarter, 22-16. The defending champions continued their run in the third quarter, 24- 19.
But G.I.2 rallied in the final quarter to finish at 85-80. Miguel Milla and Dirk Basco both scored 21 points apiece in their side's loss. In the final game of the day, Papa-Zaj beat Body Building 65-61 despite Allan Tirso scoring 22 points for the Body Builders in the final inter-company game of the day. Tito Ausa and Oscar Tan scored 19 and 12 points to enable the victory.
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