JEDDAH, 16 November — Former Safari inter-division MVP Roel Cabilen provided redemption ending up several disappointing nights by pounding the boards with impunity and Eugene Santos given ample playing time, showed the tenacity and immense talent of a premier power forward as the bruising duo provided the spark that awakened what had been an almost dormant fighting spirit of the SHM Safari team en route to a pulsating 69-67 thriller over league-leading Giant Stores.
Safari’s victory sent the SBA-King Abdul Aziz International Airport Rim Invitational basketball tournament into a wide-open race for the finals seat. Gillette Mach 3 and Giant Stores are tied for the number one spot at 3-2. Safari has a 2-2 card and idle Dynarabia Fire Rescue is 1-3. Each team has a theoretical chance to end up in a four-way logjam, with the possibility of all of them ending up on a 3-3 slate.
This could happen if Dynarabia beats its last two opponents, Safari and Giant and Safari on the other hand beats Gillette Mach 3. Thus, every game counts although Giant and Gillette would have the inside track if they win their final assignments against Dynarabia and Safari respectively. Another loss for Dynarabia would boot them out of the running, while Safari has to make it two straight to merit a championship appearance.
For the first time in four games that they have played, the Safari warriors truly played as a team. Point guard Bobby Carreon set up the plays and Jim Tomas provided the passes instead of giving way to his itchy hands when given the ball. Rommel Montes did not score much but his defense was downright intimidating even as the burly Romy Quito came up with crucial hits collecting 10 points.
Although Cabilen top scored for the winners with 23 points, the key to Safari’s inspired play was Santos who made the most of his exposure as the Safari bench had only seven men on rotation. Santos exploded for eight points in the first quarter alone setting his teammates to a fiery start. He was sparingly used in his team’s first three games.
Safari enjoyed a 62-58 lead but started seeing an impending nightmare when Giant Stores dropped an 8-0 blast anchored on two Diaz free throws off the fourth foul of Montes. Asperga connected on an intercepted pass tying the game 62-62 and Diaz connected once more on a fast-break, then, along with Morales split their charities to get on top 66-62 with 3:45 remaining in the game.
SHM-Safari refused to bow down to pressure this time around fueling a key 5-0 run that saw Sam Paris restore the lead to 67-66 swishing the net on a left perimeter jumper. Diaz was sent to the line and made a split to tie the game for the last time 67-67 with exactly 1:07 to go.
Carreon and Montes split their charities on the ensuing plays to give Safari a two-point lead. In their hurry to level the score on their next offensive attack, Giant’s Bautista was whistled for a backing violation, nine ticks remaining. But the thrill did not stop there as Montes and Santos suffered mental lapse losing the ball to the sideline with 5 ticks to go. Giant worked their final offensive but could not put up the ball in the face of a clamp-like defense as time expired. Only Diaz and Bautista pieced double digits for team manager Orlando Carpio’s white shirts with 17 and 15 respectively. Morales and Carlon added 9 and 8.
SCL project manager Engr. Abdullah S. Al-Shamasi principally sponsors the 2nd SBA-KAIA Rim basketball games, which have provided excitement and wholesome recreation to the SNC camp of more than 2,000 multinationals and around 500 Filipinos.
In the nightcap guest team ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel went on a merciless assault of the Jeddah Knightz 84-49 to prove that their opening day debut was no fluke. It was Rene Consignado’s turn for Showtime barreling his way through on several occasions and collecting fouls at will for penalty shots that most often than not found their marks top scoring with 29 points while A.J. Marcelino added 21.
So lethal was TFC’s domination both offensively and defensively. Offensively, all of their minimal crew scored and even their littlest, Abogado hit 15 connecting on plays when the audience wouldn’t expect him to deliver. Defensively, they smothered Jeddah Knightz go-to-guys Nabus and Acebuque stripping them off the leather a countless number of times.
At some stages of the game, TFC led by as much half of the scores. They lead 8-4, 26-13, 40-20 and 54-27. Although the cable connectors only showed up with six men against an opponent with a dozen men in the line-up, in some strange way the trend was that the lead was inversely proportional to the number of players the team had on its line-up, a mangled law of physics somehow saw application by the scoreboard.
