JEDDAH, 8 February — Sudanese 6 foot 8 man-mountain Al-Haj lifted Al-Mabani to a stirring 73-72 victory while dealing the first-ever defeat of Goody-Basamh Trading as the semifinal stage of the 8th Abdullatif Jameel Invitational basketball tournament draws to concluding matches this weekend at the ALJ Rehab here.
Al-Hekma continued their menacing run toward a first-ever championship appearance by shocking powerhouse Toyota Echo in what could be a championship preview for the two leading teams in the ALJ inter-division. Barring any major incident, the two are likely to meet each other in the championship. Despite the loss Echo is most likely in while Al-Hekma go for the wrap-up against Toyota Century whose 84-67 loss to Echo is a Damocles sword hanging on their neck. Toyota Camry is out of the running, waylaid by both teams in the semifinals.
Aside from an equally distributed offensive knack that worked in clock-like precision, the high school squad whose confidence level seems to be peaking at the most opportune time, showed grit and determination on the defensive end. They swarmed and stymied Echo’s tower of power Edwin Gadingan denying him easy access to the basket.
Jesse Zapanta, Ron Regis and Hernandez played brilliantly and it was the latter’s two free throws that iced the win for coach Abel Chavenia’s Al-Hekma.
Al-Haj managed to beat the buzzer and keep his team’s championship bid alive on a put-back of a heave from afar by Mabani’s go-to-guy Edwin Gadingan that yanked off the rim. However for that to materialize, Al-Mabani hopes that Sadafco score an upset over Bentley’s (Al-Naghi) in the last semifinal at Group A. Goody’s Roland Centeno went for an all-important steal and conversion on the break to lift Basamh Trading of Ed Perez to a hairline lead, 72-71, time down to 8 seconds in the final session prior to Al-Haj’s game-winning follow-up that earned him best player of the game accolade.
