New season new hope. After suffering first game first quarter jitters, the newly formed Pilipinas U21 team gave newly minted U21 manager PH-Cezzz a very arousing welcome by trashing the U21 Lebanon team by 30 points with the final score of 95-65.
After trailing for most of the first quarter and starting to lose hope, a last second half court heave by Nicholas Robleza resulted in a foul by the Lebanese defender and Robleza took advantage of the mana from heaven and made all three shots to get the Pilipinas team to within one point at the end of the first quarter.
When the second quarter came, it was a different atmosphere as an energized and inspired U21 team lead by 7-1 center Ash Julius Mones made life a living hell for the Lebanese as they limited the Lebanese squad to only 8 points while scoring 18 points to break the game wide open. The third quarter was the same as the Pilipinas squad clamped down on defense and stretch the lead to even more to 21 points. The fourth quarter was garbage time as the Pilipinas squad first 5 sat down for the rest of the quarter and it was the bench who finished the game.
Julius Ash Mones of da Iron Curtain from Pilipinas League 2.1 was the top performer of this game with 14 points and 16 rebounds respectively while adding 2 blocks one steal and one assist. Coach PH-Cezzz was very proud of Mones as the defense had a hard time guarding him but even he had to admit Mones had a bad night at the free throw line making only 2-12 shots. "Hopefully he can shot better FTs the next game" Coach PH-Cezzz said sheepishly.
Brian Riley Obutusin of Nueva Ecija Cardinals from PPL also had a brilliant game scoring 14 points of 6-7 shooting and hauling down 6 boards. When interviewed by the press this is what he had to say. "Hopefully Coach PH-Cezzz will reconsider his decision making me a substitute in our next game as my play speaks for itself. I deserve to be first five."
Another brilliant performer of this game was backup PG Mark Anthony Lintag of Blue Horse Beer from Pilipinas 2.3 who dished 7 assists and stealing the ball three times while while shooting 7-14 from the field to finish with 14 points. When asked how if he also felt insulted by being a backup PG with his brilliant performance, Lintag was more humble than Obutusin as he answered "It is an honor to be in the U21 Pilipinas team. I will gladly be a backup PG but if Coach PH-Cezzz gives me a chance to start why not?"
With the young bloods raring to go the battle, their next opponent Kazakhstan U21 team will have to watch out as a new bright dawn has descended upon our U21 team.