JEDDAH: The four-day event took place at Roshan Mall over the last two weekends. Twelve of the toughest teams in Jeddah entered the basketball event to support Hearing Awareness in the Kingdom. Mukhlis, Intertone, Pattaya Restaurant, International Medical Center, The Jumpers, Shamps Sports Club, Zenith, The Wolfs, Jeddah Heat, Saudi Oger, Bison, and The Fensters all competed for the cash prize of SR7,000 for the winner, and SR3,000 for second place.
The family event was well attended with prizes given out for three-point and half court shots every day by Al Mukhlis Hearing Center. Sony Play Stations, Mobil phones, DVD players, free McDonalds Meals and the Al Dahlawi Group sponsored the half-court shot contest with two 29 inch TVs and one 29 inch LCD TV.
Each team played three games to advance to the quarterfinals. Zenith, The Jumpers, Shamps, and Intertone qualified for the last four stage.
In the semifinals, The Jumpers beat Shamps while Zenith beat Intertone to enter the final.
Shamps took third place in a back and forth battle with Intertone.
The championship game started with The Jumpers dominating during early minutes of the first half. Then Zenith were on fire, hitting threes, driving to the hoop and hitting their foul shots. By the end of the first half Zenith took the lead and never looked back. The Jumpers found it difficult to score and Zenith coasted to victory.
Zenith’s Tardiq Al Aleter won the MVP Award. All of the teams were happy to lend their support to the Hearing Awareness event. The referees from the Saudi Basketball Federation, and Mahmoud with his team of Pilipino Federation referees were the scorekeepers.
The Saudi Championship Hearing Impaired Bowling Team attended as special guest and received gifts from the sponsors. The Hearing Awareness reminders and information was well received by the audience.
