Friendster, Stars, Oilers win TFC Cup openers

Two weeks after the regional events in Jeddah and Riyadh the cream of the crop of Filipino basketball in Saudi Arabia returned to action at the weekend for the TFC Kingdom Cup 2012 basketball tournament.
The basketball roadshow that will run for three months in three venues across the country was launched last Thursday at the Sheraton Sports Complex court in Jeddah with Friendster beating undermanned Vipers 100-92 in the first game of their best-of-three series.
The winner in the Jeddah series will join the qualifiers from Riyadh and Dammam in the semifinals, a double round robin home-and-away affair where the top two teams will contest the championship trophy in another best-of-three match.
Stars, led by Fi-Am James Smith who scored 22 points to go with 10 rebounds and 3 assists, on Friday drew first blood in the series against Blazers 89-67 at the Zahid Tractor gym in Riyadh.
Sherwin Garcia added 16 points and 6 rebounds and Cortez 14 points for the Stars.
Friday, in Dammam, the Oilers bannered by the likes of veterans Omar Asmad, Jessie Cabanayan and Allan De Castro, brought down Dragons 91-86 in their side of the eliminations before a jampacked crowd of 1,500 at the Al Nahda Sports Club.
The tournament was put together by ABS-CBN Middle East FZ, LLC in cooperation with its partners namely Filipino Basketball Association (FBA) and Filsama Basketball League (FBL) in Riyadh, Filipino Athletes and Performers Society (FAPS) in Riyadh and the United Filipino Basketball Federation (UFBF) and Filipino International Basketball Association (FIBA) in Dammam, according to ABS-CBN Regional Marketing Head Maribel Hernaez.
Western Union Money Transfer, Sky Freight Forwarders and Alicafe are the major sponsors with LBC, Giordano and Friendi as co-sponsors.
Thanks to its partners the TFC Middle East did a good job in the launch of this project in all three venues.
TFC Kingdom Cup adviser-consultant Joe Lipa and Hernaez were supposed to travel to Jeddah last Thursday for the grand opening but failed to make it due to visa problems.
Labor Attache Alex Padaen was the chief guest at the opening ceremony. Among the VIP guests present were Fouad Taher, managing partner ABS-CBN Middle East SDD, and Emy De Guzman, president-general manager Sky Freight Forwarders.
The basketball community in Jeddah was well represented, led by FBA President Edgar Mendoza, who is also the TFC Kingdom Cup regional secretariat, and Teng Laguialam of FBL who is the regional commissioner-Jeddah.
The shorthanded Vipers, handled by veteran coach Boy “4GS” Corsega and managed by Francis Magat, stayed with the full-strength Friendster of Cris Melebo and coach Amang Catador until their collective legs gave out at the halfway mark of the fourth quarter.
Christian Guimpatan led the Friendster charge with 23 points, 9 rebounds and five assists, Jay Liam added 18 points, Jorge Pascual had 16 points, while Leo Tablante, JR Piedra and Mark Basa each contributed 9 points. Basa also hauled down 16 rebounds.
Robby David, playing virtually without relief, scored 22 points and had 6 assists, 10 rebounds and seven steals in a sterling performance for Vipers. Ron Magat tallied 21 points and 8 rebounds, John Rebolado made 14 points, Ryan Aguam 13 and Mursie Akad 10.
The second game is 8 p.m. today at the NAI-Juffali Compound court in Bawadi District with the Vipers looking to avenge their defeat with a complete lineup.