RIYADH, 8 November — The Kudu and Pizza Hut teams once again proved their dominance to be the top two teams to beat and the precious charms of the 2nd Conference Basketball Fever in Riyadh (Inter-Company Bonafide) organized by the Riyadh Inter-Hotels Sports Committee.
Allain Catalan of the Kudu team expressed optimism and strongly believe that every performance he make help lift his team to victory in their remaining battles not to mention their current no-loss team standings along with the rejuvenated Pizza Hut team.
The Zahran boyz were in high spirit during the first and second canto where exchange of basket recorded six deadlocks while concluding the first half with 42-39 in Kudu’s favor. Pundador Aguinaldo made an outstanding performance with 14 rebounds and 12 points and Rey Sillo was seen with a lot of improvement during this encounter and highlighted 8 rebounds and 9 points share. Likewise, Kudu’s precious gem Allain Catalan, who was at his peak finished the match with 7 rebounds while topscoring his team with 18 points. On the part of the Zahran Co. team, Jess Ritualo shared 21 points with Anton Castaloni contributing 19 points but was not sufficient to contest on the Kudu boyz efforts where Bordz Sabordo darned the board with 15 points and Edmond Mamangun punched 12 points to conclude the game with 86-76 score.
The Pizza Hut blocked Metito’s bid to stop them from recording a no-loss team position, 77-59. Pizza Hut’s roster blended well with Arthur Gabon, Zenki Naperi and Xandrix Babao with Larry de Guzman taking care of the rebounds while Noel Villafuerte and Dave Mallari teamed with Joseph Abasolo in delivering points. The Metito squad revitalized again only during the start of the final canto with Philip Reyes and Dondon Payang getting their shooting form but were too late as they only managed to slash a portion of the big deficit.
Earlier, the Burger King boyz successfully whipped the Madjaas group in a narrow margin, 76-71. Burger King prevailed during the first quarter and finished with 21 points margin in their favor. Aldrin Alegria, Jimmy Mayo, Nelson Aldema, Joey Agbayani, and Melchor Tatlonghari united their efforts and succeeded in closing the door for their challenger to retaliate and finished the game with 5 points margin at the buzzer end. Madjaas’ Marlo Bordoquillo, Aldrin Abadiez, Ulysses Muzunes, and Zeno Abasolo strengthen their defense but could only lessen their opponent’s point advantage.
Another strong team in this tournament, the Jeraisy Group showed their prowess at the hard court by thrashing the Metito Vivendi team in an 82-78 score battle. Through the proper fielding of cagers of coaches Rico Malaluan and Alvin Mendoza, the Jeraisy cagers led by Michael Tamayo, Joselito De Dios, Cholo San Juan, Rino Tolentino, and Fernando Cuizon ended the first quarter with the driver’s seat in their favor, nine points margin while ending the second canto with a 14 points margin. (Jun Adriano Mallare)
