Bank Street registered their third straight win in the Jazzville Basketball League (Inter-town Division) with a 77-53 victory over Al Dhiyafa at the Jumeira Baccalaureate School on Friday.
Bank Street’s pressure defence was evident in the first quarter as eight steals helped them sail into a seven-point lead (26-19).
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They pushed their advantage to 13 in the second period as player-coach Jowin Gumila made eight markers to lead the offensive attack of Bank Street to make it 37-24.
Aside from Gumila, four more Bank Street players found their rhythm and scored in double digits – Pet Nobela and Rey Nacario had 11 points each, while Alfie Salenga and Arvin Ronquillo scored 10 buckets apiece.
Bank Street tightened up their defence and forced multiple Al Dhiyafa turnovers in the third quarter and increased their lead to 16, going into the final period (51-35).
Al Dhiyafa, however, refused to buckle and had a short rally in the middle of the fourth quarter to reduce the deficit to 10 points (57-47).
Bank Street retaliated with an 8-0 run courtesy of back-to-back triples from Lawrence Relano and a basket from Julius Salazar to set the score to 65-47 with only two minutes left.
“We stamped our dominance early in the game with our strong defence,” Gumila told Sport360: “But more than anything else, we demonstrated our hunger to finally get into the Final as we’ve only managed to reach the semis in the past two tournaments of JBL. This big win pushes us closer to achieving it.”
Meanwhile, Al Dhiyafa are out of contention after they suffered their third straight loss. Best for the losers were Rommel Manuel and Troy Jacusalem with 13 points each.
In the other games, Subisol and Mades scored 21 and 14 points respectively to lead 2nd December to an impressive 84-55 victory over Jumeira, while Divina finished with 16 markers to give Bur Dubai a 62-53 win over International City. Al Rashidiya also registered a big win over Mankhool, 60-44, courtesy of solid performances from Rodriguez (20 points) and Filipinas (15 points).
SCORERS
Bank Street 77 – Jowin Gumila 17; Pet Nobela 11; Rey Nacario 11; Alfie Salenga 10; Arvin Ronquillo 10; Julius Salazar 6; Jester Richard 6; Lawrence Relano 6
Al Dhiyafa 53 – Rommel Manuel 13; Troy Jacusalem 13; Arnel Manlapaz 9; Edison Manlapaz 9; Ralpy Gallardo 7; Joseph Tabuzo 2
