JEDDAH, 1 February — Stamping too much class and leaving no room for doubt on the eventual finalists were in order at the conclusion of the crossover semifinals of the OFBL-STBA Friday Morning Sunriser games at the Al-Nuzhla Saudi Telcom gym here.
Hosts Saudi Telcom and Brutos mowed down their rival by 19 points, Kodak led by 25 and Al-Tazaj Fakieh had the closest winning margin of 8 points. Thus, the stage is set for the single game championship affair with Al-Tazaj Fakieh battling Saudi TelCom in Group A and Kodak taking on Brutos.
The much-ballyhooed cockfight between Al-Tazaj and Kentucky Fried Chicken was almost a repeat of their first meeting with the spring chicken specialists winning 99-91.
The two ballclubs fought tooth and nail with the former leading by just a basket in the first two quarters, 18-16 and 39-37. The Fakieh dribblers upped their lead to six, 71-65, at the end of the third and were happy to duplicate their first half performance 18-16 in the fourth for the regulation score.
Encilla (19 points) lead six players of Al-Tazaj who scored more than ten points for a well-balanced offense while only Sapnu and Fernando scored in double digits, 15 and 12, for Kentucky.
Brutos hammered ALJ Denso 92-73. Navor was the leading scorer for Brutos with 23 while Reyes and Dolloso combined for 30 points to offset ALJ-Denso’s Quintana who drilled 30 points. After leading by 5, 21-16, in the first quarter, Brutos pulled away by 15, 45-30, in the next phase to dominate the remainder of the game. If Denso-ALJ’s loss was already painful, the pain is doubly harder for one of their players Aninipot who lost an upper tooth when he ran roughshod into Buhat.
Saudi Telcom went to de la Cruz (20), Medina (13), Orpiada and Cunanan (10) points apiece in drowning D’Captain (Restaurant), 83-64. Coronejo led the Blitzers with 17 points and were hurt by the cold performance of Astronomo who had only 2 points to show.
KODAK, which upgraded its team as the tournament progressed, welcomed the timely arrival of A.J. Marcelino on a merciless 92-67 trampling of GulfMaid Plastics. In contrast, GulfMaid of coach Rene Valle and team co-ordinater Reales, were ravaged from the start by the decision of the combined OFBL-STBA technical committee disallowing their supposed key player Joseph Diaz to suit up for the games. Diaz’s only remarkable appearance was at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport Rim Inter commercial where he towed Giant Stores (Mr. Butcher) to a runner-up finish.
Ramirez and Javier led Coach Rhic Briones and team manager Zakariyah Ahmed’s team with 23 and 17 markers. Marcelino contributed 14. Vergara, Mercado and Hashem drained 16, 14 and 12 points respectively for GulfMaid.
The Friday Morning Sunriser Games which got going early November last year was organized by the Overseas Filipino Basketball League in coordination with the Saudi TelCom Basketball Association under tournament director Rod Samson, director of operations Luis Austria and tournament co-ordinator Marlo Reyes.
