RIYADH, 1 May 2008 — Al Safi Danone and Prince Sultan Dairy went two-for-two during the past two weekends of action in the Zahid Tractor Basketball Tournament Central Region 16th Cup.
Coming off a defeat Al Safi scored consecutive wins in contrasting fashion, routing National Guard Health Affairs 91-69 and edging out previously unbeaten Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Humanitarian City (SBAHC) 85-83 in a contentious match decided only in the waning seconds.
Prince Sultan Dairy served notice of their potential as a major title contender, beating undermanned defending champions ZTBL Central Region Pride 86-64 and demolishing Saudico 80-41.
The lopsided results put Prince Sultan Dairy to the top of Group A with a 3-1 win-loss record. The top scorers in PSD’s game against Saudico were De Jesus with 21 points, Olaco with 13 and Lamonte with 11. Actually, the game was stopped due to a violent sandstorm with still 6:39 to play but Saudico coach Yulo Turrion conceded, saying to continue the game is pointless as the outcome won’t change. It was a mixed result for the hosts as they defeated Wallan Hyundai in overtime 90-87 for an even 2-2 record, as three-point specialist Tom Portuguez found the time and space to deliver the game clincher.
With six seconds left and the score tied at 87-87, Portuguez locked the ball up in his hands, squared up and drained the three that sent Hyundai to their second straight defeat. Ironically, it was a three-pointer by Hyundai’s Maniual with four ticks left that sent the game in overtime.
Earlier, Hyundai lost to Prince Naif University 69-65. In this game Prince Naif University caught the breaks in the last 1:48 to turn the game around. Datu was the top-scorer with 21 points followed by Rubio with 12 and Supan with 9 points. NGHA made it two-for-three when they blasted Saudi Networkers 109-51 in a mismatch of a contest then defeated Al-Bawani 95-75.
In the other games, Naghi Trading walloped RGTS Al Raja 96-66 in Group A and Mighty Geant whipped SABB 97-77 in Group B.
Geant took over the game in the second half with Dugang, Teologo, Robert, Canas and Morhini all strutting their wares to score 29 points, 23, 16, 11 and 10 in that order. NGHA lost their grip on the game in the final two quarters and Al Safi went to town with a steady stream of points from Albert Pineda, Dumalon Jericho Genuino, Villanueva and Añonuevo. Against SBAHC Al Safi took some doing and managed to breathe easy only when they took an 85-81 lead with 1:47 to play.
ZTBL Organizing Committee Chairman Armin A. Gonzales, meanwhile, thanked the Zahid Tractor management and staff led by Faraj A. Tarhini and Yousuf Talal Zahid for the usual support for this yearly sports event in the Central Region.
