RIYADH, 20 June 2003 — The Zahran Co. and Seder Group teams turned in fine performances to beat former champions Kudu and Pizza Hut teams in the third week action of the Jeraisy Group of Companies Inter-Company (Bonafide) Basketball Tournament at the Jeraisy Staff Compound Basketball Court, Exit 7-back of Al-Imam University, Riyadh.

Julius Morales of the Seder team made the first basket with Joseph Abasolo retaliating for the Pizza Hut team. In the early ticks, Seder established a 4-point lead, 11-7 with Mico del Prado in the forefront while Seder’s topscorer Rod Paraiso and the rest of his teammates continued their teamwork notwithstanding Federico Penullar’s consecutive triples to increase their advantage.

Pizza Hut’s Zenki Naperi, Nante Garcia, Dave Mallari, Ruel Tugade and Larry De Guzman were unable to cash in easy shots while Seder took the chance of sending their first stringers to bench to give way to other cagers. Seder boyz’ posted a 15-point lead, 49-34 and further increased it to 19 points, 53-34 scores. Tolitz Sigua’s conventional shots with able assists from Francis Fuentez and Raffy Quinonez led to Coach Jojo Bien’s Pizza boyz tasting their first defeat in this league, 65-49.

Another casualty of the night saw the Kudu boyz clipped by the Zahran team 85-84. Rookies of both teams (Benjie Enriquez for Zahran and Manuel Calma of Kudu) opened the game with a 3-point shot and one-handed fallout respectively. With 2 minutes left in the first canto, Noel Sabordo converted a lay-up and took charge of directing the play with Ador Aguinaldo, Aries Sarmiento and Allain Catalan on the scoring end. Arnel Ardamoy, Benjie Enriquez, Anton Castaloni, Jess Ritualo and Dingdong Urrutia tried to further the lead, but Kudu’s Team Captain Noel Sabordo countered a 4-0 run from a steal paving the way to narrow the lead by 6, 42-36. Coach Orly Casimero called for a time-out during the early part of the final quarter and his game pattern worked well as Kudu slowly inched to within a 3-point lead, 76-73.

With 2:25 minutes left in the ballgame, Manuel Calma converted a back to back, 82-80, and with 57 seconds left, Jess Ritualo split a charity for the Zahran team to win this game by a hairline.

The Donut makers tasted sweetness success at the expense of the league’s neophyte team Al Mashar with Dick Policarpio converting the first ball while the neophyte team made their first field goal after five minutes of the first canto which ended 10-8 in their favor while the second and third quarters ended in the Donut makers favor, 27-19 and 43-37, respectively.

In the final quarter, Vincent Estrada converted a tiebreaker and Ronald Solis hit two free throws for a final score of 64-60 in Dunkin Donuts favor. Ronald Solis, Renato San Diego, Vincent Estrada, Dick Policarpio and Joey Cutanda starred for the Donuts team while Jess Uy, Jess Medrano, Alejandro Hicom, Abet Rivera and Allan Mendoza stood out for the Al Mashar.

Jeraisy Group took their second win by beating the Jarir Bookstore team. Lanky Michael Tamayo scored a get away shot followed by a back-to-back clutch hit by Alex Cerro with Rino Tolentino, Fernando Cuizon, Lito de Dios, Khaled Hamouri and Jeffrey Dela Cruz assisting throughout. The Bookstore squad of Coach Jess Ordinario applied a sticky defense as Roy Dellosa, Omar Tamano and Dominador Po, Jr. took charge of their team’s scoring chores during the final quarter with the scores tied at 50. But flying “M.T.” scored a basket plus a bonus shot from a foul to give the host team a two-point lead with 9 seconds remaining, scores at 54-52. Jeraisy’s Coach Rico Malaluan heaved a sigh of relief as Jarir’s Omar Tamano missed the 3-point buzzer beating shotto leave Jeraisy 56-54 victors.

This league is being officiated by the FCBR Referees while Chito Solis served as the anchorman.