Moulinex and Friendi Mobile stayed alive with Game 2 victories in the best-of-three series for the Inter-Commercial Open Non-Rated A and B championships against Marogong and SBG D’ Inspectors in the 1st Friendi Basketball Tournament presented by all new WPBL at the Ahmed Khaki Sports Complex (Orca) court here.
Moulinex went from strength to strength in a 92-82 victory while Friendi rode a hot 28-point performance from Jorge Pascual to a 79-72 triumph in a pair of games Thursday that set up a potentially explosive Game 3 in both divisions.
To complete the super Friday of 3 no-tomorrow championship games today is the Inter-Commercial Open Rated showdown between Nunungan Lakers and Carrier Juffali.
Today’s program also includes Non-Rated C second game of the series between Greenland and BTC-Baud Telecom, which advanced to the final by beating Shakba Makkah Taif 89-79 in their knockout semifinal game last Friday. Greenland and BTC played the first game last night.
Playing heads-up basketball, Moulinex jumped out to a 19-7 start. Making runs after runs courtesy of Diego Domalogdog, Dangao and Mark Basa Moulinex sat on a 51-37 lead at the turn.
Marogong tried to close the gap in the third quarter only to reel under the weight of a 20-6 blast that Domalogdog started with a completed steal and featured sallies by Diaz and Dangao. Suddenly, Moulinex was unassailably ahead by 29 points at 77-48 from 57-43.
That Marogong was not that badly beaten as the final score indicated was only because Moulinex dropped its guard a bit with five minutes to play.
Domalogdog finished with 28 points on a good shooting night where he won Best Player of the game honors.
Friendi rallied strongly in the second half to win and avenge its 99-87 defeat in last week’s series opener.
Pascual almost singlehandedly brought Friendi to within three at 54-51 from 44-32 at the start of the third quarter, which ended 58-55 to SBG.
The game was touch-and-go until Pascual hit a three to cap an 8-0 tear in which Cruz sandwiched a basket by Batioco, giving Friendi a 12-point spread at 77-65 from 69-65, time down to 3 minutes and 2 seconds.
Meantime, Housekeeping A completed a 12-game sweep of the eliminations thrashing Engineering B 109-64 Thursday and Nursing 99-58 in the 10th KFAFH Inter-Department organized by United Filipino Workers of King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital (UFWORK).
The twin win put Housekeeping A which is in position to go all the way to the title undefeated.
Portering beat CSSD 80-77 and at 9-1 looks likely to challenge Housekeeping for championship.
In other games, Housekeeping B whipped AATC 91-69, Admin beat Engineering A 63-56, Dietary blasted BME 62-49, Housekeeping A crushed Nursing 99-58 and Engineering B edged HRD 57-50.
After this weekend’s games WPBL will stage a two-day Clash of the Champions Eid Al Fitr Exhibition Game Aug. 18 and 19. The Clash of the Champions will pit the Riyahd-Dammam Selection against Carrier Juffali-Jeddah Selection
An added feature of the event is the 1st Lanao Lakers Inter-Muslim Regional Invitational. The participating teams are Riyadh All Star, Maguindanao All Star, Sibuco All Star and Maranao-Marogong All Star. Also, there will be cultural kalilang festival competition and regional tennis event.
