JEDDAH, 11 January — What a good feeling it could be to stay unbeaten and remain the lone squad among a total of 23 teams seeing action in a basketball tournament.

Goody, Basahm Trading did just that at the completion of the elimination round of the 8th ALJ Invitational Basketball tournament as they closed out their campaign with a 79-76 victory over semifinal hopefuls Zuhair Fayez Group and end up with an immaculate 7-0 slate, a distinctive achievement for any team in this three-division tournament that began Oct. 12 last year.

Now onto the semifinals, Goody leads the cast in the Group A Inter-commercial division followed by Bentley’s Tea (Al-Naghi) and Al-Mabani, which shared second and third places at 5-2. Sadafco completes the lineup at the fourth spot with a 4-3 card.

Goody’s over-achieving record was done notwithstanding the absence of their top gun Roland Centeno, who was not in proper uniform and thus protested by their opponents, was forced to ride the bench in their team’s final elimination round assignment.

Goody, which really can afford to lose the game anyway without jeopardizing their semifinal stint, did not show complacency, as it always had been when you have the likes of Ed Perez as head coach, the court generalship of John Tato and the unbridled support of Faisal Azem, marketing coordinator of Basahm Trading and Mr. Erick Abrantes.

Sadafco scrambled just in time to hitch a semifinals bus on a 94-84 victory over Al-Naghi Bentley’s Tea 94-84 as Abdullah once again took the lead role with 29 points to lead three other dairy makers who scored in double figures: Nonoy Guarra (20), Baluarte (19) and Topper del Rosario (14).

Bentleys’ matched the firepower of Sadafco’s quartet as Bautista hit 29 points, Solis had 21 and Reyes and Elmenzo scored 11 and 10 but were hurt by the absence of Aaron Mayo.

Another team hurt by the absence of its key player, Arnel Quizon, was Zahid Tractor who were rolled over by Royal Blood, 83-77, as Rolloda burned the hoops with 39 points, the highest scorer of the weekend.

Belarmino and Ahmad added 13 apiece for Royal Blood to wind up at third, 5-2, behind Fujitec and Sharbatly, which shares a 6-1 win- loss card in Group B.

Royal Blood’s victory paved the outright semifinals entry of Kudu Foodmasters which scored a gigantic win over Fujitec 77-58 in an overly emotional and heated game that saw the ejection of Fujitec coach Bobby Dagdag and Jong Rapada for vehemently contesting what they felt was spotty officiating of the lopsided match.

Al-Hekma’s Zapanta drilled three 3-pointers in the final quarter to cap a successful elimination round for the high schoolers with a 73-60 drubbing of Toyota Century.

Al-Hekma jumped to a 38-30 half-time lead and never looked back.

Toyota Camry is at first place in the ALJ Interdivision at 6-0, followed by Toyota Echo at 4-2.

Actually, three teams were tied for the third and fifth places at the end of the elims in the ALJ inter-division, Toyota Century, Al-Hekma and Toyota Corolla, who wound up with identical 3-3- slates.

By the quirks of the "goal averaging" system applied to break the three-way tie and avoid a rubber match, Century and Al-Hekma had higher points piled up than Corolla, which failed to land the semis.

The scores:

Goody 79 — Dela Vega 22, Abbas 18, Duque 14, Tato 11, Cruz 6, Hermie Rabadan 6, Gregorio 2.

Zuhair Fayez 76 — B. Umlass 20, Uppos 19, Alarcon 11, Tiu 9, Perez 7, Mercado 5, Nebrida 2.

Sharbatly 96 — Penaflor 15, Pilos 14, Tacuboy 13, Solero 12, Alberca 8, Pacia 6, Ang 6, Bustamante 5, Dianzai 4, Laurente 4.

Al-Jomaih (GM) 59 — Herrera 24, Tolentino 14, Ronquillo 11, Ibe 6, Osorio 4.

AL-Hekma 73 — Zapanta 18, Garcia 18, Hernandez 14, Regis 12, Ortiz 11, Suarez 4, Santos 1, Khan 1.

Century 60 - Dula-ogon 23, Calara 19, Valencia 6. Roxas 6, Plata 4, Estrella 2.