PALAU MEN GO DOWN FIGHTING
Unfortunately the Youth Yellow Team was depleted by several players with family commitments however, they all played with great purpose although always behind on the score board. While the heavy work inside was left to mainly Ngetimis Emesiochel and Luke Willter, the girls in Diliaur Kumaichai, Jaycee Nolan, Mariah Joseph and Nicole Gabriel stood up to the physically stronger National Women players and showed that with time and teaching they will be a force in future Palau teams.
Coach George Domingo had the opportunity to rotate players to try different combinations, and with an ankle injury to point guard Sesengel Ketebengang was able to try others in that position. The younger brigade for the Palau Team in Nicole Carlton, Esi Ubedei, Leilani Etpison and Courtney Tellei showed their intent to gain more court time during the Micro Games through great effort while on court.
The men’s game had all spectators eagerly looking forward to a great contest and the Palau Team and the BMP All Stars did not let them down. The BMP All Stars are a class act, with excellent individual skills, great awareness and good court coverage. In a tight first half the Palauans kept in touch with some strong defence to be down by just 4 at the first break.
In the second quarter the BMP All Stars showed their versatility with excellent ball movement in offence and all players able to score from all over the court. When the 5 man comes outside and sinks 25 foot shots, one after another it is hard to defend. With the difference at 18 going into the last quarter, the National Team were challenged by Coach Kintaro to get the deficit to 10 by game end and to the player’s credit they fought hard to do just that and finally went down by 12 with the score at 78 – 66.
For the BMP Team Kevin Keltner had a game high score of 22 points and his brother Keith chipped in with a handy 18. For the National Team Gino Smau and Arnold Undecimo had 14 each.
In tonight’s games the two Youth Teams – Blue and Yellow meet again at 6.00pm and the BMP All Stars take on the FBL All Stars at 8.00pm.
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