JEDDAH, 15 March — When United Naghi says the word die is not part of their vocabulary, better believe it. On a huge come-from-behind victory, they registered impressive winning debuts with Big Bang Malabang and Al Bayt Decor in the United Yousef Naghi Open Basketball Classic at the Hafil court in Jeddah.
Organized and managed by the Mindanao Federation Basketball Association, this three-month basketball event is exclusively sponsored by United Yousef Naghi Electronics Division, the sole distributor of the world-renowned Philips, LG, Nardi, Fogoes Meireles and Ariston electronics and home appliances in the Kingdom.
United Naghi came up with a big second half blast to start their season with a 107-101 victory over Sadafco. Trailing 49-66 at the half, United Naghi’s ultimate stand seemed effective in the form of a crippling whole court press that saw Danny Lequin’s charges triggering a 12-4 run with the help of newly acquired Oroc Sarip. The effort also caught Sadafco in surprise when in the final five minutes, United Naghi forged a deadlock and went on to take the lead for the first time at 72-70.
The ensuing play showed Sadafco coming back to life, with Ronald Batarao, Darwin Domingo and Raymund Suarez displaying a brilliant offensive and defensive thrust that had the count changing a couple of times until the final sixty seconds. That was when Sarip, with United Naghi already leading by three points, signaled the victory with a booming triple that swished through the basket and caught dismay to the dominant Sadafco crowd.
The presence of Sarip was not felt instantly, as a result of total non-practice with the team. He picked two early fouls and spent most of the first half on the bench. It was just a matter of time before he got his range, while he was forced to adjust with United Naghi’s trademark man to man trapping defense that seemed effective. “No matter how bad we played, we really played hard”, coach Danny Lequin said after the game.
Lequin added. Big Bang Malabang survived a big scare on the highly celebrated comeback bid of notable Alex Tampi and towering Pol Fernando, the former Filipino king of the hard court and top center player in Jeddah, who recently joined the Binidayan Madalum team. Big Bang Malabang came up small but big in fighting heart, defeating tough Binidayan with a 91-84 victory during the start of the inter-Maranao games.
With the glad rags of an all around player, Barry Nader started out with a split from the charity line before a booming triple, enough to constrain Malabang to stand valiantly to the ground. While Tampi literally dominated the paint, with his shots coming from put backs and his trademark high leaping layups and Fernando controlling the boards, Nader capitalized his efforts from the three-point arc. He got strong backing from Cariga and Dimapatoy who did their fair share of shots, forcing both teams into an incessant battle for the lead almost all through out the game.
But the final five minutes already saw Binidayan limping with just six players in the fray. Nader led all Big Bang Malabang scorers with 42 points, 15 from the three-point arc, including six points from the blitz that left their opponent behind. Tampi sank 34 points for Binidayan and got convincing support from Fernando, Faez Nashroden and Saripada. Al Bayt Decor came out and shot well to score an 80-74 trouncing of the undermanned Arab News team. Although Al Bayt had a jackrabbit start, they began their amazing trek from way down when Padua scored nine straight points and Ocampo added three in an 8-2 run to erase an early eight-point deficit. At that point, it was Arab News’ turn to commit turnovers, with the same Padua and Ocampo instigating Al Bayt to keep turning on the heat and never allowed Arab News to get back to its feet. The duo contributed half of the team’s output, while Sandy Dalit topped Arab News with 32 points.
