JEDDAH, 4 July 2003 — In the Inter-Company (Strong) Division of the 8th Seiko-16th FBA Basketball Tournament at Sheraton Compound Basketball Court, Hanco Maintenance and Junastar Cargo Services are in the final (a knockout match for the championship) while NAI-Juffali and Saudoi ABV will fight it out for 3rd and 4th place also a knockout game.
Al-Hussaini & Co. (distributor of the Seiko watches in Saudi Arabia) principally sponsors this tournament. Other supporters of the event are Samsung Electronics — UMG (Essam Abbas), Friesland Middle East (Wout Mathjis) makers of Rainbow Milk, Qatar Airways (Samir Carali), Metito (Nort Areglado), ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel, Giordano Fashions, Hempel Paints, Pepsi-Bugshan, WRJ Freight Forwarders, Junastar Cargo Services, Sky Freight Forwarders, CMS International, Nayong Pilipino restaurant and Sports World Tailoring.
Qualified in the semifinal round are Al-Majal Service Master, Samsung Electronics, Finetool Saudi Arabia and Unilever (Dove) in the Inter-Company Bona fide Reinforced Division (Weak Teams) while WRJ Freight Forwarders, Marawi Wizards, Arab News and Dynarabia Fire Rescue made it in the Inter-Commercial Open Non-Rated Division.
In last week games: WRJ Freight Forwarders of William R. Jao won their game against Eimar Arabia (89-70) via the foursome combination of Talastas, Nalus, Pineda and Garcia, while in their other game against Marawi Wizards, they lost by four points due to the rampaging drives to the basket of Sumampao who contributed 34 big points for his team. The victory of the Marawi Wizards placed them second in the ranking behind WRJ Freight Forwarders mentored by Coach Jagg Malit and managed by Bebot Budlong. Wizards players were congratulated by their team manager (Choy Lomangco) Sheikh Salih Abbas, Ali Ditucalan and Mike Maulana (their avid elders and supporters) after the game.
Unilever (Dove) joined the magic four in Division A by virtue of their win over Gulfmaid. Hanco Maintenance of Douglas Brown and Edgar Ainza sealed their entry in the championship match by beating the NAI-Juffali team (80-75) Al-Majal finished their last assignment against Unilever (Dove) winning (80-75).
The victory of Dynarabia over Eimar Arabia (who did not appear) and the loss of WRJ to Marawi Wizards also changed completely changed the picture and standing of the magic four. Three teams (Arab News, Dynarabia and National Ref) have identical win-loss standings (4-3) but in the computation of the goal averages, National Ref obtained a percentage point of only 0.9321 against Dynarabia of 0.9931 and Arab News 1.0833. It was also a tripple tie for the 3rd and 4th slots in the Inter-Company Bona fide Reinforced Division. Finetool ranked 1st by obtaining 1.0408, second Unilever (Dove) 1.0072 and 3rd Zuhair Fayez Partnership 0.9517.
