JEDDAH, 30 April 2004 — The ongoing 10th Seiko-18th FBA Basketball Tournament at Ittihad Sports Club is now on its final leg of the elimination round. Last week games resulted to the following: Unilever (Close Up) of Daleo Rivera won over Lube Ref-Aramco (95-79) in a lopsided game.
Topscorers for Unilever-Close Up were Rey Buhat, Jojo Indal, and Jun Tejada while Jun Enriquez, Jomer Calim and Ali Coronel played hard for the losers.
Westin Jeddah led by John Gatchalian blasted Marriott Jeddah (Seiko) 87-67. The first 20 minutes was a tight ballgame (33-32) with Westin ahead by one point. But in the second half, the Westin team pulled away (54-35). Marlon Pordan topscored for Westin with able support from Gatchalian and Guantia. Quizon, Magat, Sudario and Estigoy also gave all what they could but to no avail.
A thrilling match between King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital (Citroen) of Ric Aguinaldo and Jeddah Hilton of Arnold Aragon was the game of the week when both teams tied 21 times. First half score was 38-35 in favor of Jeddah Hilton while the second half score was 50-41 in favor of Citroen (KFAFH). SPS-Kodak Express headed by Edgar Mendoza won convincingly over the Friday Club of Raul David (89-81). Again, the triumvirate of Capiral, Sierra and Pinlac fought it out and were instrumental in the victory of the SPS-Kodak Express cagers while Macalintal, Besavilla and Bresuela slugged it out for their team in a losing effort.
In the final match, Tokyo Games lost to the rejuvenated squad of Sharbatly Corporation led by Coach Alex Toremania and Richie Penaflor (100-88). The plays of Sharbatly key players Sabado, Talastas, Torres and Vengco paid-off said Dick Guintu, the acting commissioner of FBA, after the game. Nap Solis, Neri Lacuata, Don Sendayen, and Mohd. Alireza and Pablo Vizcayno scored for Tokyo Games.
Seiko & Samsung best players of the games were Rey Buhat of Unilever-Close up, Marlon Pordan of Westin Jeddah, Adelbert Pinlac of Citroen-KFAFH, Capiral of SPS-Kodak Express and Gary Talastas of Sharbatly Corporation.
In a related development, FBA President Gil Manese got the approval of sponsorship of Al-Hussaini & Co. (Seiko) through Hussam S. Salahi for the forthcoming regional finals between EPBL (Dammam) Selection and Jeddah All Stars on June 2 & 3. EPBL will be donning the Seiko jersey while Jeddah All Stars will be wearing Samsung uniforms courtesy United Matbouli Group through Essam Abbas. This project will be in celebration of the 106th Philippine Independence Day, which falls on June 12 this year.
