RIYADH, 8 February — Jeff Baybay of the Shib Al Jazeera Const. team and Elmer Cano of the Luzviminda team gallantly led their respective teams’ statistic records in game one of the championship series of Sita Cargo Services and 8th Contracting Est. 2nd Open Invitational Basketball Tournament taking place at the 8th Contracting Est. Basketball Court, Riyadh every Friday from 7:00 a.m. onwards.
Valued cager Jeff Baybay glittered in the shaded area exhibiting a multi-talented show and dominated the tournament’s spreadsheet with his 24 big points, 12 rebounds, 6 blocks and 2 steals. In the same token, Elmer Cano firmly survived the harshness of their opponent and continued his exemplary feat while having highlighted 20 points, 13 rebounds and 3 steals.
During the first quarter, a field goal triggered by consistent shooter Jhun Farnal opened the ring igniting a brilliant start for the Shib Al Jazeera Const. team of Edwin Sarmiento and outscoring Roger Bajenting’s Luzviminda team.
It was a seesaw battle scenario with 5:16 time remaining, the score was registered to 8-7 in Shib’s favor and both teams worked defensively giving their full energy for court supremacy.
With 1:23 left, Shib’s ace point guard Sandy Alaiza emerged in the hard court getting much support from towering Orly Alcantara and Gerry Barba to conclude the first canto with a 2-point lead, 16-14 to their advantage. Roger Bajenting’s Luzviminda squad coached by Zandro Herrera applied a tough defense capitalizing on the expertise of Jhun Soriano, Elmer Cano and Jhun Reyes and made it with 7:30 time left, Jhun Soriano successfully netted a field goal from the left wing to register a deadlock, 20-20.
Making the most of this situation, Luzviminda boys who were so inspired demonstrated their magnificent play and executed a class of hard court strategy pinning down Shib Al Jazeera team and continued their versatile moves while closing the second quarter with 6 points margin, 35-29 in their favor.
The third quarter scene saw Shib Al Jazeera squad went down the fray with effective tools on hand. A short-handed goal coming from Jeff Baybay followed by a triple and a penalty conversion coming from Abdulgapor Ibno marked another deadlock, 35-35 with 5:36 left while another easy conversion from Jeff Baybay broke the tie.
To sum up, it was a terrific and amazing performance of the Shib Al Jazeera group as Jeff Baybay, who got an all-out support from Abel Carreon and Abdulgapor Ibno came up with his 11 points during the third quarter period only which enable them to nail down the Luzviminda team for the first six minutes without any conversion and trailed to a 7-point lead 42-35 with four minutes left pounding more weights thus putting Luzviminda squad to a pressured condition.
With this turnover of event, Luzviminda coach Zandro Herrera applied a running game and a close-fitting defense rallying up to crash the deficits and hoping to snatch the lead but failed resulting to register only seven points in this canto all courtesy of dazzling Elmer Cano while sealing this quarter 50-42 in Shib Al Jazeera’s favor.
At the onset, Luzviminda cagers again worked hard getting the most out of their terrific routine and were so spirited sustaining competently on their hard court skills aiming to knife down the margin level and were fully determined to win the game with Elmer Cano, Ganie Baldomero, Jhun Soriano, Jhun Reyes, and Charlie Dela Rosa in the front-line.
Shib Al Jazeera cagers took advantage of Jhun Reyes’ slow down performance having committed four fouls at the start of the final quarter. With 5:10 left, Shib Al Jazeera dumped a remarkable 13-point margin, 64-51 off the Luzviminda team. Worth mentioning, Orly Alcantara’s statistics came out to 8 points conversion, 6 rebounds and a steal.
Although Abel Carreon showed no much goal conversion, instead he made a glowing and splendid offensive play giving much support to Jeff Baybay who converted the game’s winning shots till the last tick of the clock paving the way for the Shib Al Jazeera team to clinch Game One victory, 72-61 in the best-of-three series.
According to Rene C. Tapang, sports commissioner of the tournament, this remarkable event is being hosted by Sita Cargo Services in collaboration with 8th Contracting Est. through the generosity of Fikry Younan Andrawis, general manager.
The sponsors of this tournament are Power Horse Energy Drink, all the way through its country manager Herman Ritz and Ramon ‘Nonoy’ Quema, Jr., TFC-Riyadh through Antonio Velo, Jr. — country manager, Al Bustan Ready Mix through Ramir A. Mariano, Rentar Restaurant, and Luzviminda Speed Sports located at Manila Plaza, Batha area through the kindness of Roger Bajenting.
The Executive Committee of the Sita Cargo Services and 8th Contracting Est. Open Invitational Basketball Tournament include: Rene C. Tapang — Sports Commissioner with Emil Rentar as the Chairman/Treasurer and Sammy Cid as the Vice Chairman. Other officials are Sandy Rentar, Anthony Rauyana, Ed Tariman, Penn Mallen, Jing Zamudio, Rudy Amihan, Lito Mancilla, and Ernie Hernandez.
The FCBR referees are the officiating referees of this tournament.
On the same venue, this Friday’s action features BLM and Tokyo Sixers to contend for the third and fourth place at 7:00 a.m. and game two of the best-of-three series between Shib Al Jazeera and Luzviminda teams follows.
