JEDDAH, 30 November — The Friendship Games continued to attract outside competitors with Budget making a losing but respectable debut as yet another team Nivea Creme strut their wares even as TFC rampaged to its fourth win in the Safari-Metal Work King Abdulaziz Airport Rim basketball tournament at the Safari Astrodome.
Safari project manager Abdullah S. Al-Shamasi and Metal Work Company’s Ali M. Badreddine are the principal sponsors of this first-ever invitational basketball competition being conducted by the Safari Basketball Association. IAP senior engineer Chris Bain, general adviser of the Jeddah All-Sports Development (JADE) KAIA Chapter and Ed la Torre and Cesar Villarreal are the individual sponsors of the Friendship Games.
Jeddah Thai under Montree and Andy Mulawin coasted to its second victory at the expense of Budget Rent-A Car. Composed of a rag-tag lineup of only seven that was hastily assembled by playing coach Phillip Eustaquio and team captain Esquierdo, Budget still went on to dominate the game all throughout racing to several dozen point leads in the third and fourth with Reyes orchestrating the plays.
Esquierdo’s bread-and-butter scheme, going strong to the hoop and scooping up the misses for a follow-up shot went unabated for most as the Engineers found no way of containing him. Budget showed flashes of tenacity and basketball savvy as Isquierdo, Reyes and Eustaquio dominated the paint and the game up till midway in the fourth.
Luckily for Jeddah Thai, the lack of solid replacement on the bench sapped Isquierdo and his fellow Budget cagers’ energy down the homestretch and the Engineers were quick to capitalize as they went full throttle in the dying minutes. Speedsters Danny Bayo and Leo Pascua were like pesky mosquitoes that stung Budget Rent-A-Car in the concluding fourth quarter as the duo came out of nowhere with crucial steals and pressing defense. Montes and Bondoc were the top scorers for Jeddah Thai 21 and 16 and teammates Guinto and Diaz carded 9 apiece while Esquierdo led Budget with 26 followed by Reyes with 16. Lunzaga and P. Eustaquio added 11 and 9.
In other games Raffy Jizon and Nonoy Velo’s The Filipino Channel wriggled out from the claws of defeat against two opponents over the weekend as the guest team stayed unbeaten in four outings.
It was the first time in the Friendship Games that TFC could have sputtered as they faced fresh legs and unbridled enthusiasm of a Jungleland team composed mostly of new recruits and a sprinkling of carry-overs from last year’s guest squad. Jungleland Mersal was poised to haul down the satellite experts and were leading by five points going to the last five minutes of action, but once Junjay Quinito was eased out of the game compounded by the early graduation of 6’3’ Wael Asharaf and ankle injury to Arnel Juan, TFC’s confidence surged ahead. The tiny Alvarez showed the spunk and grit of a pointguard and collaborated with Manny Lizaso in clamping down the offense of Marcelino and Consignado respectively while Arnel Juan and Wilson Sepulchre showcased a lot of fancy shots to the delight of the Safari crowd.
In another game, TFC saw their opponents Jeddah Thai self-destruct in the final two minutes to escape with a seemingly unassailable 72-57 win. The disparity in the scores betrayed the closeness of their match as the ABS-CBN squad took advantage of a very erratic and disconcerted gray shirts who failed to check their tempers and lost their concentration in the game with the contested graduation calls for its key players Noel Salugsugan and the Montes brothers.
It was a lost opportunity for Jeddah Thai, which could have reversed the outcome of the game as Nelson Guinto surprised the blue shirts with perimeter jumpers from all angles to offset Romel “Barkley” Mel Montes’ ineffectual sniping from long distance.
In the very exciting and eagerly-watched Inter-commercial division, Giant Stores and Dynarabia, which ended their campaigns tied at 3-3, fight in a do-or-die knockout match to determine the opponent of league-leading Gilette Mach III the championship with the Blademakers enjoying a once-to-win and twice to beat privilege for topping the double-round robin eliminations.
