MUSCAT: The Dominos Pizza Elevate Team completed their series sweep, winning their best-of-three championship series by defeating Team Excellence 78-70 and emerging as the undisputed back-to-back OPBL Tournament, Division B Basketball Champions at the Oman Club in Al Khuwair last Friday.
The Dominos Elevate Team soundly defeated Team Excellence in game one of their series at scores 85-62 with Karl Anthony Lorion emerging as the game's best player.
However, game two of the series proved to be a different story. Unlike the lopsided victory in game one, Team Excellence showed their grit, resilience, and determination from the outset surprising the lackluster first-half effort of the Dominos/Elevate Team. Team Excellence was paced by a scorching effort from their man cogs, Lagundi, Torrefalma, Ellamil, Dayag, DePaz, and Acob executing their plays with precision shooting and passing to take a huge 12-point lead 42-30.
This insurmountable lead was brought into play up to the 3rd and the last few minutes of the 4th quarter with Team Excellence still leading by 5 points 70-65 and looking to upset and stun the defending Champions, hoping to extend the series for Coach Del Upam, Mike Patigdas, and their stalwarts.
However, the game took a turn when Austin Parole scored consecutive crucial baskets to bring back life to the Dominos/Elevate cause and were supported by his team-mate’s efforts, Ronnie Hernando, Karl Lorion, Mark Israel, and tournament MVP Joshua Alcarde.
This play showed the mettle of the eventual winners who demonstrated composure in the heat of the battle despite being down and overcoming adversity with their heart and championship experience.
The team members were ably supported by the rest of the team comprised of scoring machine -Garner Lazo, forward Karl Padlan, Kenneth Katimbang, Jaycer Saldana, Andrew Tibayan, Noel Sarmiento, Danilo Mamaril, Benjie Oliveros, Josh Ramos, Drey Gobris, Dave Fermin, Keith Labrador, Ron Poblador, Mark Alin and Assistant Coaches, Pad Canong, J Ramos and Jundee Edisan.
This back-to-back championship accomplishment was a testament to the effort, and dedication of the Dominos/Elevate Team and its players and showed that these two championship victories were both earned and not given.
The tournament's best coach, Allan Minoza who also won back-to-back best coach awards thanked the Team, their sponsors, their fans, and the organizers for the successful tournament. After this, he thanked Team Excellence for a well-played championship series that brought much excitement to the community and the audience.
The tournament is organised by the OPBL thru Alasm New LLC, headed by Hussain al Rasbi and Mr Alain and Ms Ruby Garcia.
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