39SPORTS ARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

KEO Tamaraws team

Americana Food Company team

Fernandez, KEO hold off Americana in OTValera propels Al-Shatti past KFG 58-48

By Iddris SeiduArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 16: KEO Tamaraw’s Ed Sumande made the final shot to the basket to make it 59-59 at full time, mak-ing way for teammates Fernandez and Soriano to control the game at over-time to eventually finish 78-70 against Americana Food Company Friday afternoon as the PBLK 6th conference basketball games continues at the Khaitan Sports Club.

Fernandez, MVP of the game, finished with 21 points, a game high, while Soriano tallied 20 with forward Espinosa contribut-ing 9 points, 12 rebounds and six assists for the KEO Tamaraw’s inter-company win.

Buoyed by Ching Javillo and Prince Fajardo, who got hot earlier on kickoff to shoot their side ahead 14-12 early into the opening quarter, Americana outscored Tamaraws 8-3 in the first six minutes of the first quarter and managed to defend their advantage. A KEO comeback in the second half was nearly stifled by attempts at shackling of Fernandez, the KEO captain who finished with

21 points for his side.Fernandez and his crew managed

to roar back into the game on a 22-14 run in the third quarter to slice down their deficit to just four points, 49-45, two minutes to the close of the third quarter.

Missing four shots in quick succes-sion, the Americana coach was forced to call a timeout to steady his team. Helped by back-to-back jumpers by Soriano, KEO again boosted their score line com-ing within 2 points of Americana, 22-20 at the close of the third.

Americana turned the screws fur-ther on KEO following a few substi-tutions and a timeout in the final stretch. Americana’s Mercado led a hard-nosed attack bombarding the KEO hoop repeatedly as the Americana defence withstood Fernandez’s desperate bid to bring his team all the way back. But in the final few minutes, Fernandez’s efforts seemed to pay off.

Americana dimmed their chances with a series of turnovers in the final stretch and effectively turned the game over to KEO as their key for-ward Fajardo was nearly fouled out on commission of his fourth personal foul with two other players also in foul trouble.

Sumande scored in the final sec-onds to equalize, 59-59 at full time, throwing the game into overtime where Fernandez and Soriano alter-nated to bring the score line to 78-70 for KEO Tamaraws at the buzzer.

Meanwhile, Al-Shatti easily defeat-ed Kout Food Group (KFG) 58-48 in the second encounter of the Inter-Hotel division, as Efferen Valera made the go-ahead dunk with ten seconds left to propel Al-Shatti past KFG. Al-Shatti took an early first quarter lead to close the quarter 2 points ahead, 17-15, Trisgel Igay scripting the lead.

KFG rallied back into the fray two minutes into the second quarter as

KFM Al-Shatti team

Kout Food Group team

Body Building team

PapaZaj team

Bosh’s future uncertain

Warriors chase history, teamschase Warriors in stretch runTORONTO, Feb 16, (AP): The Golden State Warriors are chasing history. Everyone else in the NBA is chasing the Warriors.

The defending champions have been so dominant that they could already be a 50-win team this week-end. And unless opponents start fig-uring out a way to slow Stephen Curry and the league’s most potent offense, they could be the best team ever by the time they’re done.

Curry and fellow All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green took time out for fun in the first All-Star Game held outside the US, where Curry tossed in the final points in the highest-scoring game ever with a 42-footer to give the West a 196-173 victory.

It won’t be long before they get serious again.

“Yeah, obviously, Thursday, Friday, when games start up, put our game face back on and figure out how we’re going to try to finish out the season strong and go after anoth-er championship,” Curry said.

They are 48-4 and will bring an 11-game winning streak into Portland on Friday when their season resumes.

Golden State could reach 50 wins -- for many clubs, the mark of a very good regular season -- with a victory Saturday against the Los Angeles Clippers in what’s become perhaps the league’s testiest rivalry.

The NBA record of 72 wins, set 20 years ago by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, could be in reach.

“If it’s there for us we want to get it, but at the end of the day we’re try-ing to win a championship,” Thompson said.

There are a couple of teams in the West, and a front-runner in the East that could pose the toughest chal-lenges to the Warriors.

San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Cleveland seem to have the best chances to prevent Golden State from repeating, though the Warriors blew out the Spurs and Cavaliers last time they met. Business comes before bas-ketball this week, as the trade dead-line is Thursday afternoon, a few hours before the season resumes. Contenders will try to load up and disappointments can break up.

From there, there’s less than two months before the playoffs begin.

LeBron James dismissed a report this week that the Cavaliers were

discussing trading Kevin Love, say-ing they had enough to win after a turbulent first half that included the firing of coach David Blatt not long after Kyrie Irving had returned from knee surgery.

“Every piece that we have means a lot to the process,” James said. “Obviously with myself, Kyrie and Kev, we spear-head the whole thing. We’re focused on the main thing and knowing what the main thing is every day, we’re going to have a great chance.”

So will the Spurs, who are just 3 ó games behind Golden State at 45-8, and like the Warriors are unbeaten at home. They have won six in a row even while Manu Ginobili is recover-ing from surgery, as star offseason acquisition LaMarcus Aldridge looks more comfortable playing for his new team.

“We’ve been winning and we’re putting our-selves in a posi-tion to be spe-cial,” Aldridge said. “So that’s what it’s about.”

There’s plenty more to watch down the stretch, from Kobe Bryant’s final games before retirement to the rookie of the

year race between Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns and New York’s Kristaps Porzingis.

But the focus will never be too far from the Warriors and Curry, who seems headed for a second straight MVP award. Their record-setting start to the season brought unusually high attention to the NBA’s pre-Christmas schedule, and a strong fin-ish and a chance at 73 wins would do the same during March Madness.

The record would be nice. The Warriors would prefer another ring.

“I think we just want more. We’re not satisfied with winning the champi-onship,” Green said. “We think we have something special and it only lasts so long, so we want to take advantage of that and not get compla-cent. Let’s continue to try to get more.”

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Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat is dealing with another blood-clot scare, making this the second con-secutive year that he’s spent the All-Star break facing a most uncertain future because of a health issue.

Bosh will spend “the next few days” reviewing options and no determination will be made about his playing status until he goes through more tests and evaluation, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday night. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither the All-Star forward nor the Heat have revealed the concerns publicly.

Bosh is Miami’s leading scorer at 19.1 points per game this season. He said over the weekend in Toronto that he was optimistic about playing again this season.

Bosh pulled out of the All-Star Game and the 3-point contest over the weekend because of what he and the Heat described as a calf strain. He was shut down at the All-Star break last season because a blood clot had found its way to one of his lungs, and that issue is something that Bosh believes started as a calf problem.

He went to Toronto expecting to participate in All-Star weekend, then was examined there -- presumably because of the calf pain -- and the NBA subsequently announced on Friday afternoon that Bosh was with-drawing from the game and the 3-point event.

Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors and the Western Conference competes for the ball with Paul George #13 of the Indiana Pacers and the Eastern Conference in the second half during the NBA All-Star Game 2016 at the Air Canada Centre on

Feb 14. (AFP)

Action shot from one of the matches.

Yousef Power team

FKTC team

Don Don De La Cruz hit two free throws with seven seconds left to end the second quarter 23-22, nibbling down their deficit to one point.

And following a timeout Al-Shatti inbounded to Valera, the captain of the side, who dribbled to the lane and passed to Igay. Igay slammed the ball with his right hand for another Al-Shatti point that brought the score

line to 28-18 at the end of the third. Al-Shatti continued on their momen-tum and were able to finish the last quarter 19-13 to bring the final score line to 80-69 for Al-Shatti.

Also in the penultimate game, Body Building slammed Papazaj res-taurant 79-45 while Yousef Power roared past FKTC 77-65 in the final game of the day.

Under the lights

Rory, Fowler set for‘prime-time’ matchLOS ANGELES, Feb 16, (AP): For the first time in more than a decade, golf is getting another prime-time exhibition. Except this one will be live -- under the lights.

Quicken Loans is finalizing details for a match involving Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler a week before the US Open, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Monday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the match has not been announced.

The match would be at Detroit Golf Club on June 7, the Tuesday before US Open week begins at Oakmont outside of Pittsburgh.

The first two hours would be tele-vised live by Golf Channel, followed by the 9-11 pm slot shown live on CBS. It was not clear how many holes would be broadcast under the lights.

Unlike the Monday night matches involving Tiger Woods in 1999 and 2000, there would be a celebrity component with this exhibition. The person said it would be “Team Rory” against “Team Rickie.”

Still to be determined are the celebri-ties and the format.

Quicken Loans, the Detroit-based mortgage company, is no stranger to offbeat sporting challenges. It already has staged the first college basketball game on an active aircraft carrier, and two years ago offered $1 billion to any-one who completed a perfect bracket in

the NCAA basketball tournament.In golf, it became title sponsor of the

Quicken Loans National, hosted by Woods, in 2014 and has a personal endorsement deal with Fowler. As part of its PGA Tour involvement, Quicken Loans has a sweepstakes in which it pays someone’s mortgage for a year when a PGA Tour player makes a hole-in-one.

McIlroy, who is No 3 in the world going into the Northern Trust Open this week at Riviera, and Fowler (No 4 in the world) are two of the most popular figures in golf.

Both live in South Florida, and Fowler last year played in the Irish Open to help out McIlroy because of McIlroy’s involvement.

Golf has a heritage of such exhibi-tions. A century ago, the value of win-ning a major was to be selected to compete in such exhibitions, where the prize money was greater than anything won at a major.

Woods resurrected that concept in 1999 with the “Showdown at Sherwood” against David Duval (they were No 1 and No 2 in the world at the time), and a year later against Sergio Garcia.

Those Monday night exhibitions got away from head-to-head matches and switched to team events that included women and seniors. They stopped in 2005.

The rating peaked in 2000 at 7.6, and dropped to 3.0 in 2005 when Woods and John Daly played Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen at the Bridges on Rancho Santa Fe. Lights were only used at those matches when it got too dark.

Woods and McIlroy played a stroke-play exhibition in 2012 in China that was available through live streaming in America.

BASKETBALL

GOLF

BoshMcIlroy

BASKETBALL