JEDDAH, 27 June 2003 — The 8th Seiko-16th FBA Basketball Tournament is now in the homestretch of the elimination round when the remaining important games will be played this weekend at the Sheraton Compound Basketball Court in Jeddah. Early qualifiers to the semifinals are Al-Majal Service Master & Samsung Electronics in the Inter-Company Weak Division and WRJ Freight Forwarders in the Inter-Commercial Open Non-Rated Division. In the Inter-Company Rated B Reinforced Division, Junastar Cargo Services posted their fourth victory in five outings to clinch the solo lead position in their group with Hanco Maintenance closely inching in with three wins and one loss card.
Battling it out for the third and fourth slot of the magic four in the weak division are Finetool, Unilever, Zuhair Fayez and Gulfmaid while in the open non rated division; National Refrigerators, Arab News, Marawi Wizards, Dynarabia & Eimar Arabia are still fighting it out for the three remaining slots. The three months long tourney is principally sponsored by Al-Hussaini & Co. (Seiko) through Abdul Rahman Al-Hussaini, Hussam S. Salahi & Mohd. Ali Taleb.
Finetool S.A. led by Herman Mallari and Coach Silao won by forfeiture when Saco Hardware players did not appear in their scheduled game. National Refrigerators team headed by Gerry Acosta went home empty-handed when they lost by a hairline lead to Dynarabia Fire Rescue dribblers headed by Jun Natad and Ed Marquez. (76-75). Meanwhile, Marawi Wizards of Team Manager Rudy Dianalan, Salih Abas and Ali Ditucalan managed to win their fifth game against Eimar Arabia via a convincing score of (75-60).
In the final game between Junastar Cargo Services of Boy Mangilin and Pros Manlapig and the Saudi ABV cagers of Benjie Telebrico and Felix Sarmiento; the former prevailed over the latter only by a field goal in a very thrilling game that resulted to an overtime when Leo Almoite failed to release the ball on time in the last remaining seconds. Thus, the ensuing five minutes of play was also a ding-dong battle. With only few seconds left and the score was 99-96 in favor of Junastar Cargo Services, a three point shot from Alvin Bautista was successful that resulted in a 99-99 all tie, but in the dying seconds Pakkie converted a field goal before the final buzzer that catapulted their team to victory.
