Kentz Company overrun Air Aztecs 101-83
New variety of sports tourney series run alongside PABLK
KUWAIT CITY, May 28: Richard Beltran scored 24 points and Kentz Company survived a first round onslaught to overrun Air Aztecs 101-83 on Friday afternoon at the PABLK basketball season1 Tournament series played at the Sultan Centre Sports Club in Hawally.
DXN, Islanders and TSC Hawally were the other winners of the series following an opening ceremony to usher in a new variety sports tournament series- Iglesia Ni Cristo which includes men/women volleyball, basketball, badminton, Darts and chess to run alongside the PABLK series.
Richard Bayron had 19 points and 6 rebounds in the Kentz win while Gerald Minsalan with nine assists and six rebounds chipped in 14 valuable points. The victory was the league leaders’ third in as many matches since their bruising defeat of Travis last week.
Aztecs blew an opportunity to steal the game after having made a triumphant first quarter start, taking a 4-point lead, 28-24 on the backs of Orlando, Lozano and Kiko. But as play progressed into the second and third quarters, the Aztecs quickly lost steam, allowing Kentz’s trio Beltran, Bayron and Minsalan ample space to repeatedly move back and forth to their basket, resulting in a 22-point double digit run at 75-53. Beltran scored 20 points including two 3 - pointers and a 2 in the period.
Aztecs pushed the pace to take an 8-3 lead three minutes into the fourth, prompting a Kentz timeout call. Beltran, MVP of the game, scored his 20th point in the game in the early fourth quarter ahead of Aztec’s Orlando who had missed a series of shots at the opposition basket.
The Aztecs were successful in suppressing the Kentz’s defenses to take a lead in the final stretch to finish the round 4 points ahead 30-26 which still was not enough to zero out their deficit which stood at 18 points at 83101 in favor of Kentz. Orlando paced the Aztecs’ loss with 18 points. The loss was no.6 Aztec’s second in three outings since the beginning of the season.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Allen Adorador and Alex Ramacion led the charge for Islanders’ triumphant 11280 win over Open Kitchen restaurant in the next game. Adorador had a game-high 34 points including six rebounds, four assists while Ramacion added 32 including four 3pointers. Marlon Batino led the restaurateurs’ effort with 39 points in a game loss that was their second out of three in the season.
Meanwhile, third-seed DXN humbled Tropang Kuwait in the penultimate game of the Conor Express Cargo sponsored tournament, 10186. Sampson, Rondez and Tan scored 33, 24 and 18 apiece in the DXN win.
Tropang Kuwait now standing at 03 and stuck at the bottom of the pile was led by Torillo who finished with 26 points. In the final game of the weekend, Sultan Centre Hawally (TSC-Hawally) had an easy 86-69 run over Travis in a thrilling encounter that saw TSC come from behind in the second half to finally clinch the victory.
There were also chess, volleyball, badminton, darts as well as basketball games played under the Iglesia Ni Cristo umbrella.
Updated Team Standings:
WL