DAMMAM, 14 May 2004 — The National Pipe Company (NPC) of Dhahran ended its one-year title drought via a two-game sweep of its archrival, Sigma Paints of Dammam, to bag the 2004 Open Conference crown in the premier category of the prestigious Eastern Province Basketball League at the Al-Ittifaq Club jointly sponsored by AND1 and Phuket Restaurant.
Pipemakers Jordan Sinio and Edgard Bucalin took the scoring cudgels from their more illustrious teammates, exploding with 24 and 22 points, respectively.
Sinio capped his brilliant performance by igniting a 10-0 run midway in the fourth period. Though Jess Cabanayan contributed only 4 points, the ex-pro provided the much-needed on-court leadership in tandem with one-time RP national, Ernie Baggay.
After leading NPC in Game 1, MVP awardee Romwell Lampitoc, was limited to 14 points, as he was forced to sit out most of the match on getting into early foul trouble. Wene Datungputi led with 31 points but didn't get much scoring support as only two other Paintmasters registered in double figures.
Hernandez added 19 points and Allan de Castro chipped in with 10 points. NPC's Anthony Nabong won the Best Center award.
In League B, Saudi Ready Mix beat listless Taseco squad via forfeiture when Taseco failed to show up for the second time for their last match in the elimination round. The two successive no shows of Taseco catapulted the Mixers and the Al Mouwasat Hospital Tigers to vie for the winner-take-all championship match today.
In Division II, Noel Malibiran led the K. R. Bouhaimed (KRB) five with 37 points in a heart-stopping knockout win over SADIP Ductech and earn the right to face Dammam Kings for the title. After a slow start, KRB’s stifling defense resulted in a 7-minute scoring drought for SADIP in the final period that saw Malibiran racking up 11 straight points.
Jimmy Santos and Vinz Layson contributed 14 points apiece. Cris Sindayen topscored for SADIP with 19 points. SADIP's championship hopes vanished when ace gunner, Nick Aclan, fouled out with more than two minutes left in the match.
In the Inter-company knockout match, Saudi Steel Pipe and Astra Polymers went on a neck-to-neck battle to seize the last ticket for a one-game finale against Panda Supermarket.
SSP needed an extra period to pull off a stunning upset over the fighting Astra Polymers, 79-77. In the Inter-professional category, the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) scorched the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) to win third place in the annual sports festival of Philippine Professional Organizations in Saudi Arabia in cooperation with the Eastern Province Basketball League.
PICE's triple "S", Arvin Salvilla, Ireneo Sarahina and Woody Savedra, ignited the engineers' fastbreak attacks to run away with a 68-54 victory.
