Ooredoo score narrow win

A miss by Arnold Calo at the free throw line with seconds left before the buzzer, proved costly for AA Tailoring Vintage as they suffered a heartbreaking loss to Ooredoo 69-68 in the semi-final of the Senior Open’s tournament of Ooredoo Cup 2017 hosted by Pinoy Basketball of Qatar (PIBAQ).
Ooredoo’s win earned them the ticket to the final and they await the outcome of the other semi-final between Junalvin and Khalifa Boyz on Friday.   
Ooredoo were leading by five points as the game entered the two minute play time from a basket by leading scorer Jojo Longalong. Nut Vintage kept coming back from the deficit with Erwin General slicing Ooredoo’s lead to just two points, 67-65, with 1:59 left in the game.
Longalong fought back with another jumper from the assist of Willy Layag to up the lead to 4 with just 1:14 left but Noli Raagas responded the challenge with a perfect 2 of 2 from the free throw line from a foul by Layag to cut down the lead again to just two points with 54 seconds left in the game.
Noli Raagas even gave the winning squad a big scare with 1 of 2 conversion from the free throw line from a costly foul of Longalong who again top scored the game with big 35 points and 11 rebounds of which nine came from the defensive board.
The foul committed by Ooredoo’s Rafael Colo to Calo with a second left in the game could have made the difference but the latter failed even just one basket to give them a lease of life for a five minutes in the overtime period which could have probably gave them another chance to get into the quest for the much coveted championship rounds.
Vintage were faring well in the points off turn over with 20 points as against Ooredoo’s only 2 points but their leading scorer Marcelino Soriano with 20 points was never a factor in the crucial end game see-saw battle.
It was indeed a tight ball game as they tied in the first quarter at 16-all, Ooredoo was ahead by four at the end of the half but the real battle was seen in the third quarter when the shooting war saw the game tied five times even as Vintage prevailed by four points at the end of the quarter.
The 22nd Men’s Basketball League 2017 has been brought by Qatar Basketball Federation in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Qatar and United Filipino Organization in Qatar.