IN the hotly anticipated Fun Cup final between Celton Warriors and Phillies, these two familiar foes faced off at the NSC on Thursday with the Phillies holding a 10-point advantage.
That didn’t last long as dead-eye shooting from Chris Wolfendale brought Warriors level within five minutes.
Phillies were reeling from the assault, but found a steadying anchor in sharp-shooting Revi Del Rosario who hit hat-trick of threes and a couple of lay-ups that restored the advantage by the end of the first quarter.
Raj Mallorca shouldered the scoring early in the second as Rosario headed to the bench and the mercurial guard was creating havoc around the perimeter and penetrating at will.
When Joel Garmino hit a rare three from outside, the Phillies bench were whooping it up like the game was done and despite the best efforts of David Dallimore around the basket, the Warriors couldn’t get anything going and went into the half-time trailing by 12 and looking beaten.
Phillies were in full flow with Mallorca and Jim Manuel straight after the break to push the Phillies out to a 21-point lead and Warriors’ coach Colin Kirkham was forced into an early timeout.
Clearly unhappy, and showing it with a clipboard seen smashing to the floor, he redeployed his team into a zone press and started getting some turnovers.
A key minute of play saw Wolfendale and Kai Kirkham score five points each to decimate the deficit meaning there was only 11 points between the teams going into the fourth - game on.
Warriors continued with their press, while Phillies continued to inexplicably attempt to dribble through it and turned the ball over multiple times.
A swished three and made free-throw from Wolfendale tied the game and it was Ben Campbell who hit the go ahead shot to give Warriors their first lead with under a minute to go.
Another turnover gave the ball back to Steve Christian who was fouled as he finished magnificently at the rim and he coolly sank that one and the resulting free throw.
A desperate heave from Rosario brought his side back to within a single basket then a rare second-half turnover for Warriors gave the ball back to Jim Manuel who was fouled with three and a half seconds left.
Needing both free-throws to tie the game, Manuel missed them. Garmino stole the rebound, fed Rosario but he wasn’t able to get the shot off.
Warriors took the win on the back of a stunning comeback to steal the Fun Cup from under the noses of Phillies.