2016 FBA Season/16.06.17/SEA@MON/Capsule
Tashira Rucson is here at Treasure State Arena in Billings, Montana, giving you a live quarter by quarter update exclusively for FurSports-dot-net! This is Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, and the Seattle Summit are just one game away from clinching the series and move on to the FBA Finals against either Pittsburgh or Albany. This is already shaping up to be quite an interesting game as Seattle will be playing with their huge bear Daniel Quvianuq way back in the reserves and is questionable after suffering a knee injury in the previous game. Louis Ellenburger is taking his starter spot as Center for the game, thus keeping their rising star Jake Turner at Power Forward. The Montana Howlers however have been dealt a much more serious blow as their star Center Hiroyuki Matsuura has been sidelined with a 15-day injury. The injury and Sterling Bengtzing's ill but public view of Seattle sparked a brief confrontation between Jake Turner and Sterling in twitter, with Sterling ending the 'conversation' with the words "Go to hell". Will Montana fight back and force a Game 7 without their star avian, or will the Summit be a mountain too high for them to climb? Stay tuned for further updates!!
The first quarter has been completed here at Treasure State Arena and it has been a laxluster effort from both teams thus far in terms of defense. With both teams focusing more on offense, the question now seems to be on consistency on the field goal shot accuracy. Kresta Renstill set the course for the home team as she opened the game with a two-pointer just inside of the arc, but there have been some incidents of Sterling having some 'words' with Jake Turner on the court. The television cameras caught him on the act, but exactly what he said to him was incoherent for the reporters to decipher. Renstill and Turner currently lead their respective teams with six points each at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter has this scent of deju vu since Game 3 of this series, but the Howlers haven't been able to build a double-digit lead by halftime. The Howlers are definitely feeling the absence of Matsuura, but Bengtzing is holding his own as the team's starting Center. Seattle 's offense is keeping on the pressure, urgent to prevent a third Game 7 in their run in the playoffs alone. One particular highlight is Oriana Lowenthal's massive dunk after a fast-break run with 5:34 left to play in the half. Turner remains the leader for the Summit in points with 12 and grabbed 6 rebounds, with 1 offensive rebound. Kresta continues to lead Montana in points with 13, but is only 1 from 3 from the woods. While the Summit keeps fighting, they need to push harder in order to close the gap. Montana meanwhile needs to continue their momentum and try to keep pulling away if they have any shot of forcing a Game 7.
The third quarter is now done and there's just one more quarter left before the end of the game! The second half began almost omniously as Vincent Maraundi collided hard with Summit's Niko McNamara during a drive to the basket, sending both down clutching their heads. Thankfully after a brief checkup by their respective trainers, the players returned to the court before the end of the quarter. Seattle is turning up the heat however, with Ellenberger slapping the ball away from the Howlers' shots and the team spread the floor on their offensive attack to chip away at Montana's lead. With 3:10 to go in the quarter, Sterling Bengtzing drove hard to the basket for a one-paw slam dunk only for a notably aggressive Jake Turner to leap and soundly reject the dunk with a huge paw, slapping the ball all the way onto the fourth row in the stands. To add to his frustration in trying to put away Seattle, Sterling has collected four fouls already. With just seconds remaining in the quarter, a buzzer-beater 2-pointer by Kinny DeMarcus has tied the game for the first time since the opening minutes of the game. *SEA 85 MON 85*
And that is the end of the game! Both teams keep up the pressure against each other even higher, but after so many playoff games and the intensity high between them, it tested the bodies of even the most hardened of players. Jeri Naranjo had her tail stomped on accidentially after a rebound attempt, sidelining her for the rest of the game. Lemond Conkale made one turn too hard during a drive, rolling his ankle. Ren Inoue crashed to the floor hard with Jamie Velasquez, sending the canine to the sidelines and the avian Velasquez also out of the game with questionable status in the future. Kinny DeMarcus also landed awkwardly after a rebound attempt, landing on the court elbow-first and he'll be on questionable status injury-wise. The worst injury however happened to the caracal Vincent Maraundi, spraining his thigh after playing too hard for his body to keep up. Despite all these losses, both teams fought long and hard in the final quarter, trading leads and ties throughout the opening and final minutes of the quarter. With just five seconds remaining on the game and the game tied, Montana's defense tried to maintain the Summit and hopefully force overtime, but Niko McNamara made a long 30-foot desperate shot that somehow managed to cleanly go through the net, silencing the Montana crowd for good as the Summit celebrated their victory. Player of the Game goes to Jake Turner with 28 points, 11 rebs, 2 assists and 3 blocks. The High Howler award goes to Kresta Renstill with 23 points. The Seattle Summit moves on to the FBA Finals for the first time in Seattle's history, clinching the series 4 games to 2. This is FurSports-dot-net's Tashira Rucson, signing off.
-Tashira Rucson (JWolfman)