The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Rabena stars in Fremont win By Dick Sparrer Melvin Rabena will remember this game for the rest of his life. It appeared to be just another tournament game, but when the Firebirds finished regulation locked in a 56-56 tie with Oak Grove, the game started to take on added significance. And when the clubs were still deadlocked 66-66 after one overtime, all eyes were on the floor... and on Melvin Rabena. Fremont ended up pulling out a thrilling 76-71 double-overtime win over the Eagles to earn a place in the semifinal round of the Fremont-Sunnyvale Holiday tournament. But more importantly for Rabena, he poured in an impressive 34 points, including seven buckets from three-point range. The 5-foot-8 senior guard led the Firebirds to the victory and into the tourney semis against St. Francis. Fremont lost to the Lancers, then to Independence in the tournament's third-place game. But Rabena had already done enough to earn a place on the all-tournament team. The guard played the game of his life against the Eagles. And Cameron McNeil and Reynold Carlos weren't bad, either. McNeil finished with 20 points, including a pair of threes, and Carlos added 14 points, including a three-pointer. Manuel Mendoza and Tam Kim tossed in four points apiece to round out the scoring for the Firebirds. Fremont suffered a disappointing 68-18 loss to St. Francis a game later. Kim and Mendoza had four points each to lead all Fremont scorers in the game. The Firebirds ended up fourth overall in the tournament when they lost 47-29 to Independence. Renato Carlos topped Fremont with 12 points, including a three, and McNeil hit a three on his way to 10 points. Erwin Tugadi hit a three-pointer, Glenn Marasigan had two points and Mendoza and Ryan Casto added one point each. The King's Academy ended up ninth overall in the tourney, beating Lynbrook 50-39 in its final game. James Terada poured in 16 points and Nate Morrow added 13 to lead the Knights to the 11-point win over the Vikings. King's improved to 4-5 for the year with the win. Dan Leong and Ben Jones supported with nine points apiece for the Knights. Ryan Hazley added seven points and Steve Vanderet, Tony Castillo and Jarod Monroe hit two each. Lynbrook slipped to 4-10 for the year with the loss. Brandon Davis dropped nine points to lead the Vikings. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 30, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.