Rotowire

It was a tale of two games in this series, as Bucks Gaming and Heat Check Gaming both claimed comfortable wins in pool play action Wednesday. Heat Check Gaming, after a mundane first quarter, turned things around in Game 1 and never looked back afterwards. A 21-13 third-quarter score pushed them ahead by 12 points and the Heat cruised as well in the final quarter. Bucks Gaming couldn’t complete the comeback (18-18 in the second quarter) and the game ended with a comfortable 81-69 win for Heat Check.

GlennRatty carried Heat Check Gaming in the Game 1 win after posting 40 points (15-of-22 from the field) with eight assists. TBShiftay notched 19 points, while Hotshot filled the stat sheet with 12 points, nine rebounds, five assists and eight blocks. At the other end, Regg and Arooks led the way for Bucks Gaming, finishing with 27, and 25 points, respectively. No other Bucks Gaming player scored in double digits, but Plondo delivered a strong performance nevertheless, chipping in with 16 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

Bucks Gaming, however, started Game 2 with a more aggressive approach and that was clearly noticeable in the way they played. They grabbed a 20-14 lead in the first quarter and never looked back, extending their advantage as the game kept progressing. They won every single quarter separately — 20-14, 22-21, 19-16 and 33-17 — although they saved the best for last, nearly doubling the score of Heat Check in the final minutes. Bucks Gaming ended with a comfortable 94-68 victory.

Four Bucks scored in double digits in this one, but Regg was the undisputed star of the game, finishing with 53 points and six assists. Ty tallied 12 points of his own while Plondo registered 12, to go along with 21 rebounds. GlennRatty finished with 31 points for the Heat Check Gaming, but that wasn’t enough. King Peroxide had 15 points, while Hotshot did another great job at filling the stat sheet and finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds and seven dimes, to go along with five blocks.