JEDDAH, 20 December 2002 — In it’s seventh week, the ongoing Samsung — 15th FBA Basketball Tournament still attracts a huge crowd of basketball aficionados from various sector of the OFW’s in Jeddah. Regarded as the premier basketball organizing group in the Western Region, FBA is headed by the veteran sports organizer Gil Manese.
Samsung Electronics (UMG) is the principal sponsor of the three month long tournament that is expected to wind-up in February 2003. Valuable support also comes from House of Donuts, Giordano Fashions, Dulux Paints, Sadafco, Nivea, Sadafco, ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel, Qatar Airways, Junastar Cargo, WRJ Cargo, CMS Int’l, FAL-GM-Lorenzo Cargo and Sports World Tailoring (recently crowned champion of the Samsung & Seiko Basketball Challenge 2002 held during the Eid of Ramadan this year).
Last week games results are as follows: Hempel (KFNB) lost in their match against Saudi-ABV (74-69). Red Thunder, under the mentorship of Coach Boy Lucas won their third game at the expense of Universal Motors Agencies (74-68). Al Majal ServiceMaster won over the equally strong team of ALJ-Toyota 96-83. The absence of some of the key players of Toyota hampered the chances of the boys of Coach Gonzales.
Toyota cagers did fairly good but Al Majal’s faster and younger cagers prevailed due to their stamina and sweet shooting ability, said tournament chairman Lito Martin. This was coupled by the strong showing of Carpio, Consignado & Ramos. Sadafco cagers headed by Mahmood Bandar and Rolly Suing lost their second game to the stronger team of Jeddah Cable Co.(Al Hejaz Cargo) engineered by Mahmood Protacio, the multi-awarded coach from Industrial City (77-71).
Friday matches resulted to the following: Jeddah Hilton of Roger Acayan won over the winless team of ALJ-Rehabilitation Hospital managed by Kennedy De Leon. Jeddah Hilton standouts were Malagar, Salazar and Shibly while Calara and Dela Vega did well for ALJ-Rehab. Brutos Warriors under Coach Ruel Buhat and Trox Olsem took the drivers‚ seat and the solo lead in the Inter-Commercial (non-rated reinforced) division when they won convincingly over Dexol Transmission 84-64). Jamjoom ‘96 got what they want when they beat Zahid Tractor of Naser Bayram and Rolly Villanueva inspite of the good play and shooting prowess of Quiozon & Bernardo, (100-87).
Donald Dolloso, Adriano and Quemada top scored for Jamjoom. In the most awaited game between the 13th FBA team champion Jeddah Cable and the 1st Runner-up team Hanco Maintenance the former bowed to the latter (96-92). It was a real exciting and tough ball game, said Rolly Santos, a veteran coach himself and an avid basketball aficionado.
In spite of the splendid performance of ace player Ibrahim Rongavilla who successfully converted 8 three points shot in the game with the nice assist of Tato, the Hanco Maintenance dribblers stole the show with the equally exceptional performance of Richie Estrada, Depante, Latigo Carpio and Cresino.
In a related development, the 7th Seiko — 14th FBA Basketball championship and awarding ceremony will be held on Dece. 27, 2002 at the COCG basketball court in Industrial City with Hussam Salahi and Muhammad Ali Taleb of Al-Hussaini & Co. (SEIKO) as special guests. Games will be Samsung vs. Mashat Al-Sharq and Saudi Hi-Tech vs. Goody (formerly Jeddah Slashers) now managed by Eric Abrantes. (Gil Manese)
