JEDDAH, 18 January — The 1st Overseas Filipino Basketball League/Saudi Telecom Basketball Association Friday Morning Sunriser games reached the semifinal stage at the Al-Nuzla gym. Al-Tazaj Fakieh, The Captain Restaurant, Popeye Nuggets and hosts Saudi Telecom have practically cornered berths in Group A but it’s an entirely a different story in Group B where four teams are crowding each other for the two remaining semifinals slots. Only two teams thus far had made a clear headway, Brutos is automatically in with a 7-1 card and so do ALJ-Denso at 6-2.

While the Group A elimination round skirmishes have settled into a facile conclusion, the attention of everyone else is focused at Group B where the situation as Lenny Kravitz might mumble is, "it’s not over till it’s over".

Until the remaining elimination games are over, Sameer Photographic Supplies-Kodak coached by Rhic Briones and managed by Gassan Gusman, is momentarily running third at 5-2. GulfMaid is pegged at 5-3 while Hydraulic City and Pet Roblo’s MODA Defenders are tied at 4-3. All the aforementioned teams have a mathematical chance to make it to the semis. All of them, except for GulfMaid, have still one game left to play.

The magic number to attain is 5-3, which is a distinct possibility that can be shared by all four teams, lest this is not a safe card considering that multiple ties may ensue. In such a case, the technical committee has to rely upon the quirks of the quotient system to determine which teams are in and out.

Kodak’s 5-2 card came via a dozen-point win, 97-85, over GulfMaid as five snap-shooters led by Javier (22) and Mike Cruz (21) scored double figures. Vergara and Hashem led losing coach Rene Valle’s squad with 21 and 20.

Colibao had a huge 33-point effort as ALJ-Denso handed the lone loss for Brutos 95-84 in the battle of the two top teams in Group B. Denso led by identical eight points in all of the quarters and scored three points better in the fourth for the regulation score. Reyes and Alcala hit 23 and 22 for the losers.

Even if Kentucky Fried Chicken with top gun Fernando burning the hoops with 43 points and pinning them to the tune of 63-74, host Saudi Telecom still made it to the semifinals on a token resistance with Balingit and Bautista chalking up only 13 and 12 markers for the losers.

In other games, coach Gerry Acosta’s Jeddah Friends-Ericsson voraciously fed on Burger King 103-68 as Datu pumped 36 points besting the losers’ top man Deang who scored 18 points.

MODA Defenders kept the flickers of a semifinal campaign alive on a 70-49 ransacking of Al-Joon restaurant as long-tom artist Randy Mangune shot 28 points. Atienza led Al-Joon with 21.

3rd SCBA Invitational Basketball

Tournament on the works

Meanwhile, OFBL’s mother organization, the Saudi Companies Basketball Association under President Talat Alam, will conduct a meeting on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Ittihad Gym with the prospective teams who are set to join the 3rd SCBA Invitational Basketball Tournament.

The 3rd SCBA cagefest will have its opening day on Feb. 15, and will be featuring five divisions: inter-school, inter-hospital, inter-company bonafide, inter-commercial open and inter-supermarket.

Details for registration from interested parties can be coursed through key SCBA officials including T. Alam at mobile No. 0096655357514, Dennis Eco (053642756), Boy Teves (0096654685778) and (02-6475047), Vener Torres (0096653691587), F. Rocky Tadili (02-6855555 x 4381) and Edd Reyta ((02-6437088).