JEDDAH, 15 March — Toyota Echo, Bentley’s Tea and Fujitec emerged champions in their respective divisions at the conclusion of the 8th Abdul Latif Jameel Invitational Basketball tournament at the ALJ Rehab.
Echo came back from its series opener defeat to take games one and two, 109-99 and 93-78, and blew away the championship dream of Al-Hekma in the ALJ inter-division. Bentleys’ Tea lorded it over in the Inter-company non-rated division by beating Goody Team 78-74 in their third and final match-up while Fujitec copped the inter-company bonafide division by winning its first game against Royal Blood and the latter did not suit up anymore for Game Two.
Mohammed A. Jameel of the ALJ Group of Companies principally sponsored this three and a half month basketball event. Minor sponsors are Giordano jeans & shirts (M.A.K. Jeelani), DORA Japan Home Appliances, Al-Haddaf, Calsons DTD Services, STAR Supermarket. Individual sponsors are Robert Tapalles, Ghassan Makarem, and Mohammed Rasheed Ali.
A glittering awarding night ceremony pits 2002 ALJ Inter-company champion Bentley’s Tea (Al-Naghi) versus Industrial City champions Sunbullah team. The exhibition game is expected to be a grinding match-up. Bentley’s Tea has a powerhouse nucleus of players in Nap Solis, Aaron Mayo, Rey Bautista, Jing Reyes and Louie Cailles. Leo Almoite, Jong Rapada, El-Khereiji standouts Ronald Battarao and Darwin Domingo, Jungleland power forward Pat Cecillio, Jason Villanueva and Edwin Cadingan and new kid in town Alvin Serrano make up the star-studded Sunbullah team.
The most exciting thriller in the championship round was the double overtime clash in Game 2 between Bentley’s and Goody, which lasted till 2:00 in the morning. The teamakers won that classic encounter, 108-105, which saw Centeno pouring all he got in the fourth and extra periods with 18 points out of 23 but that went to naught as Al-Naghi’s Dalit almost matched him with 16 markers out of his total 20 in the same stretch.
In the decisive third game of the series Aaron Mayo dished out a MVP-clinching performance 25 points, 9 of them in the fourth period. Bautista and Reyes came through with 14 and 11 respectively to help Bentley’s Tea grab win. Abbas was surprisingly the leading scorer for Goody with 17 points. John Tato and Roland Centeno had 14 apiece while Rabadon fired all of his 13 markers in the third quarter.
Edwin Cadingan single-handedly propelled Echo to victory in Game 2, the likelihood of a raging bull goring his way against the hapless cubs with a scorching 61-point effort in a 93-78 win over AL-Hekma. The 61 points nailed by Cadingan stands as the record for most points made by any player in the ALJ court.
The Jameel Sports Organization will conduct a follow-up conference to the recently concluded 8th ALJ basketball invitational slated to begin on March 15. Team format will be categorized into three divisions namely: Inter-company B (Bonafide employees), Inter-company A (open non-rated) and Inter-hospital bonafide. For particulars, contact JSO executive director Jimmy Beltran at 0555-621665, commissioner Jun Gonzalez (6609899), secretary general Arnold Perez (6930000 x 696) and fax (6791777 x 6219), Alex Miraballes (053-634954), Rene Reyes (6783333 x 416) and Mohammed Bayoumi (6650086 & 6694137).
