JEDDAH, 19 December 2003 — Hanco Maintenance of Douglas Brown and Edgar Ainza together with Solid North of Corly Obtinalla emerged champions in their respective divisions. Hanco Maintenance became the title holder in the Inter-Company Bona fide Reinforced A Division of the Seiko-FBA event after beating NAI-Juffali of David Jeans & Alex Vidal two in-a-row recently. Solid North also emerged triumphant when they outscored their bitter rivals Bridgestone Tires in a very tight ballgame.
In other games, the Marawians International of Bobby Mapandi and Coach Ali Naser Radiamoda outscored Country Lounge & Café for the 1st runner-up contest (95-85). The Marawians started well in the tourney eliminations and semifinals but failed to make it in the battle for the championship title.
Last week games resulted to the following: Hanco Maintenance clobbered Nai-Juffali two in a row in their best of three games series that catapulted to their claiming the championship crown for the Inter-Company Bona fide Reinforced Division. NAI-Juffali got the Ist runner-up position as a result of their two encounters.
Better luck next time, tourney chair Lito Martin said after the game. The first game score was 91-75 and the second one was 78-74 both in favor of Hanco Maintenance. Team manager Douglas Brown was elated with the victory and promised to defend their title in the next tourney.
In the crucial contest between King Faisal Specialists Hospital (Experts System) of Mila Saballe & Eden Castillejo and Al Majal Service Masters of Ken Bautista, game one was won by Al-Majal SM by beating the KFSH-RC (91-81) via the nice playing ability of Consignado, Carpio, Manguerra and Guinto in spite of the good showing of Soliveres, Cecilio and Rapada.
Game No. 2 was won by KFSH-RC and they redeemed themselves via the sweet-shooting prowess of Soliveres, Rapada, Cecilio, Bautista, Arquero and De Leon. Final score was 95-82 in favor of the hospital cagers.
Meanwhile, the Experts Internet Solution of Coach Boy Corsega lambasted their rivals (Cali-Ice) mentored by James Roxas and managed by Kamal Abualfaraj 84-78 in game No. 1. Alvin Serrano, Jhong Rapada and April Mabarit led their team to victory in spite of the good play of Gatchalian, Aloite, Vitor and Buhat.
In the exhibition game between SARCO (Saudi Archiridron) Shoaiba and Hanco Maintenance, the former won over the latter (84-78). The Sarco cagers came over from Shoaiba through the initiative and cooperation of Willi Corpuz, John Iouannu, Vinod Kumar and K. Panos of Saudi Archiridron.
They promised to join the 10th Seiko-18th FBA Basketball Tournament which is tentatively scheduled to take off on Jan. 30, 2004. FBA President Gil Manese announced that the next tourney will be limited to only quality teams and will be held at Ittihad Sports Club in Jeddah. Interested parties are invited to join the next tourney by registering their entries to Gil Manese at 6686578 — 059794751 or Lito Martin at 6636936 X 302.
