Friendster crushes Spicy Fingers in Nokia-Asha FBA tourney

Friendster won a return bout against arch-rival Spicy Fingers Explosive and how.
Playing inspired basketball all game long, Friendster scored an important 88-64 victory in a big Week 10 match in the 2nd Nokia-Asha and 35th FBA season basketball tournament at the Sheraton Jeddah Hotel Sport Complex court.
It was the second win in four games for Cris Melebo’s Friendster squad in a tie with their victims, with idle Jeddah United at 2-1 with a game in hand in the Inter-Commercial Open Rated Division. The other team in the division, Avengers, are 1-2 their only win so far an upset of Spicy Fingers.
Ron Magat top-scored with 20 points, Mursie Akad added 19, Salman and Christian Guimpatan each had 10 as Friendster jumped out to a 20-7 lead and continued to bury the enemy in an avalanche of baskets to win pulling away.
So efficient was the Friendster on this night it hardly felt the absence of the vacationing point guard Robby David unlike the Spicy Fingers who had an off night without center Joseph Ubalde.
After a delightful throwdown by Salman made the count at 24-16 to end the first half Friendster got its first big lead of 19 points, 42-23, on a three by Best Player of the game Akad late in the first half.
All but two out of the 11 players fielded by Melebo contributed in a balanced scoring that saw Friendster lead by as many as 30 points, 78-48, going into the fourth quarter.
Spicy’s heart and soul, Boyet Bautista, finished the game with 18 points but only had four in the payoff period and Panganiban led all scorers with 24 points, but the duo failed to get support from the rest of the team. Playing team manager Raymond Matias made 9 points.
As usual, the FBA weekend is a heavy 10-game schedule in which two matches were battle of the unbeatens.
In the second game Thursday, Intrepid defeated Al-Mabani in overtime 83-81 in the Inter-Company Bonafide Division C. Both teams entered the match unbeaten: Intrepid at 3-0 and Mabani at 4-0.
The result left Intrepid at 4-0 and Mabani 4-1 in the 10-team division that requires at least 6 wins for a team to advance to the semifinals.
Intrepid’s Gilbert scored 28 including 10 in the fourth quarter and overtime and was named Best Player of the game. Rey had 17 points and Poliquit 10 for Intrepid of Arnold Hernandez.
Egyptian player Hamdy tossed in 14 points including clutch baskets that helped Silencer 2 beat Focus Ad 72-67 in another clash of undefeated teams in Inter-Company Division B.
Silencer 2 turned what looked a tight contest with a strong transition game in the fourth quarter as it improved to 5-0, while Focus Ad dropped to 4-1 although both are already qualified for the next round. A twice-to-beat edge is the only issue remaining for Silencer with only two games left in its schedule.
In another Inter-Company B match in the nightcap Friday, Komatsu blew leads of 11 and 6 in the third quarter and with 1:29 left to play and lost 97-92 in overtime against Petromin Express.
The defeat left Noel Sun’s Komatsu at 1-3 and needing to sweep its last 3 games to have any chance for qualifying berth. Petromin moved to within a win of at least a tie for the last spot at 3-2.
Willard Baluyut was the big headache for Komatsu, scoring a night-high 31 points including 13 points in the extra session.
Baluyut, picked the Best Player, hit consecutive threes to start the overtime and Petromin never looked back to pull off the comeback win.
Elsewhere, AVK scored its third win in four games in Inter-Commercial Open Non-Rated Division by beating Al-Muhaidib 87-84 in, Pepsi downed Silencer 1 69-61 in Inter-Company A, KFAFH beat Salam Home Health Care 88-81 in Inter-Hospital Reinforced to stay perfect at 3-0, Ford Al-Jazeera Motors edged Inma 62-61 in Inter-Company C and Francis Magat’s Uncle Majid Rice & Topping brought down Inter-Continental Jeddah Hotel 69-57 in Inter-Hotel & Restaurant Division.