JEDDAH, 17 May — In a league where the color of money commands most respect and the lack of it invites the opposite, teams SEICO, Lanao Lakers and Al-Raya, undoubtedly strong squads all are getting the respect they deserve by winning.
SEICO or Saudi Electric Industries Company, a team put up by the UMEA-BFI for the open-rated division in the 2nd Arrow Marketing-3rd SCBA basketball tournament are on a roll with their second straight victory in a row, 100-94, at the expense of King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The Lanao Lakers, on the other hand, barged into the win column by overpowering Swatch 89-70 and Al-Raya Luna zoomed to an immaculate 4-0 card beating Watani-Nivea Creme 71-64.
Arrow Food Distribution Company headed by the Sioufi brothers, Ellie (General Manager) and Georges (Business Development Manager) principally sponsors the 3rd Saudi Companies Basketball Association cagefest. AFDC is the exclusive distributor of Fruto Juice Drinks ably represented by AFDC deputy general manager Samir Bouari, BiC products division manager Ayman Mahmoud, Regal Picon product manager Syed Mohammed Noorie, and Prince-LU biscuits product manager & AFDC Western Region manger Matthew Makaraem. Also sponsoring the prestigious indoor basketball tournament are Swatch Watch (Omar Sagafi & Louie Basalamah), House of Donuts, Pringles, Snickers, Thamarat, U-Right.
Its president Talat S. Alam and a host of Saudi friends including Ali Sanhani, Ghassan Tashkandi, head the SCBA and its Filipino counterparts include Chairman Dennis Eco, Boy Teves, Commisioner Vener Torres and Edd Reyta.
In a related development, Alam and Eco arrived at a consensus that the holding of a planned basketball tournament at Al-Ahli that was tentatively scheduled last week will be reset in order to have more participating teams which have already been saturated with simultaneous schedules playing for different leagues. Moreover, SCBA organizers are studying the possibility for popular clamor. Prospective team participants maintain that there is a pressing need to work out a scheme in which family audiences will be allowed at the playing venue, which momentarily is a privilege, not granted at the Ahli gym.
Games scheduled for this Thursday pits Electro Industries versus TFC, SEICO against ITCO and King Faisal Hospital going up against Swatch at Ittihad while over at Al-Ahli Dynarabia tangles with Sawary, Panda faces Bindawood, and Sawary takes on Watani. For Friday games, King Khalid National Guard tries to seek its first win against title-contenders Taza and Aru-Abe puts on an exciting night cap against Lanao Lakers Friday night at Ittihad while Al-Raya and Danube squares off at Ahli.
