RIYADH, 13 April 2004 — As expected, WEMOWA-Extra completed a sweep of elimination round games in South group, but the bad weather on Friday abruptly ended the day’s program and disappointed the crowd in the first Mindanao Overseas Workers Friendship Basketball Tournament for the Arab News Cup at the Sheraton Riyadh Hotel and Towers court here. Excitement was in the air in anticipation of a pair of no-holds barred semifinal contests in the evening when severe sandstorm and rain forced organizers to abandon the games.

As a result, the unfinished game between WRJ and Odyssey and the one pitting Extra against Rockland had to be rescheduled for next Friday. WRJ was leading Odyssey 47-43 with eight minutes to play when the game was called by the referees on account of bad weather. The morning games though had been spared of such problem, allowing Extra to match North topnotcher Odyssey’s 4-0 win-loss record with a walkover over Al Omar. Saco evened its record in the North group at 2-2 by blasting Pacific Cargo 89-69 in the first game as Abbas scored 28 points to go with the 23 by Usman 15 by Sultan and 12 apiece by Batara and Calauto.

To make up for lost time, the organizers decided in a meeting called by

Abdulhannan Faisal Tago to have a one-game sudden death final instead of the

best-of-three playoffs originally planned between the top two teams at the end of the round robin semifinals. The battle for third place will also be a knockout affair between the last two teams.

The tournament, which has been packing the crowds in since the start in late February, is sponsored by Arab News, the leading English language daily. It is supervised by a Council of Elders composed of Abdulhannan Faisal Tago, Nurquiaez Mohammad, Jacaria Hassan and Amen Panolong, and run by various committees.

The tournament director is Omar Mapandi, technical committee chairman Muhktar Julkipli and technical committee vice chairman Jamil Zaman. The officiating is being handled by the FCBR (Filipino Confederation of Basketball Referees).

Standings:

North – Odyssey 4-0, Rockland 3-1; Saco Hardware 2-2,Team Falcons 1-3; Pacific Cargo 0-4.

South – Extra 4-0, WRJ 3-1; Greenland 2-2; Rio Grande 1-3; Al Omar 0-4.