After two games, the ongoing best of five championship series between Peched Raw against FR Spoilers for the 2013 season of the IP&E National Basketball League (NBL) has become a talk of the town.

The series is now tied at 1-all after the Spoilers rebounded and beat Peched Raw, 95-74 Tuesday night at the Palau National gym. Game One went to Peched Raw with the score at 86-80.

Game Two was an intense game as both teams ended the first quarter with a 21-all stand off. In the second quarter, Peched Raw went to a 2-1-2 zone defense that had the Spoilers got into serious trouble. Peched Raw’s defense helped them with a 10-4 run to grab the lead at 31-25 with 8:01 in the game.

However, the Spoilers managed to adjust their game and came with a strong finish as the game was tied at the end of the half at 36-all.

In the third canto, the Spoilers used their size advantage as Val Domingo muscled his way inside the paint. His performance paved way for an 8-2 run to take over the drive seat at 44-38 with 6:46 in the clock.

The Spoilers wasted no time as they caught Peched Raw’s defense off guard and finished the quarter with a 63-56 lead.

Seeing that their size took its toll against Peched Raw’s defense, the Spoilers used it to their advantage as they erected a 75-65 lead at the 6:06 mark. The lead ballooned as the Spoilers seized an 82-69 lead and from there went all the way to take the win.

Domingo topscored for the Spoilers with 29 points as Lester Mendoza chipped in 27 while Mark Pagayanan and Michael Bombita added 15 markers, respectively.

On the other hand, Peched Raw could not find answers to the height mismatched forced against them but stood gallantly against the Spoilers bigmen. Perry Oiterong finished the game with 31 as Sunshine Soalablai added 19.

Peched Raw’s missing link in Game Two was their ace scorer Douglas Schmidt who was limited to just five points.

Peched Raw head coach Rayson King said that they will take it one game at a time and hopes that their defense and speed will give them an advantage in the series.

Game Three will be tonight at 7 p.m. Game Four will be played Thursday night also at 7 p.m. and Game Five will be on Friday also at 7 p.m.

The tournament, which is supervised by the Palau Basketball Federation (PBF), is a tobacco, alcohol and drug free program. Any violators will be banned from participating. For more information call Topps at 488-4491.   By Peter Erick L. Magbanua (Island Times News)