JEDDAH, 26 April — The 3rd SCBA-Arrow Food Distribution cagefest heated up approximating the mercurial rise of a humid season as the highlight match between Al-Hekma and Prince Lu who were on a head-on collision for the cross-over leadership with 4-0 win before faceoff failed to serve as a touted championship preview. Prince Lu were leading by a big margin, 34-15, when game was halted as Al-Hekma’s coach Abel Chavenia had a heated exchange of words with SCBA President Talat Alam.
In the open-rated division, Regal Picon-Solid North took advantage of back-to-back mediocre plays of the renowned Mabarit brothers in the homestretch for an 84-79 victory over SEICO.
With the score tied at 79-79, time winding down to the final two minutes, Abril Mabarit tried to go for the go-header dribbling through heavy traffic at the paint. Art Oliva swiped the ball off him for an easy getaway by Roland Centeno and Regal Picon grabbed the lead for good. Jun Mabarit then threw a sluggish shot in the ensuing play that anchored Regal Picon’s three-point play for the conclusion of the weekend’s worth match.
SEICO, undoubtedly one of the strongest teams assembled in the premier division seemed headed for an easy victory opening up a 19-8 lead in the first quarter but Solid North showed it has the ability to come back and set up a vicious homestretch classic where the miscues of the Mabarit brothers proved to be the big difference.
It was a sorry development in the inter-school division, considering that Al-Hekma are a battle-tested squad with a runner-up finish at the 8th ALJ to boast of and Prince Lu on the other hand own a stable of young cagers whose basketball fundamentals show a lot of promises and the trio of Khalid Naghi, Karkaba and Hussaimy can provide excitement and thrills to the crowd with their open, freewheeling styles.
Alam ruled that due to the impropriety shown by Chavenia, the Saudi Companies Basketball Association is faced with no other recourse but to ban the veteran coach from future SCBA tournaments, without prejudice to the Al-Hekma squad, however. Chavenia, who readily pulled out his team upon the incident, could not be reached to air his side as of press time.
Barring the unfortunate incident, the tournament has been garnering good reviews by cracking up a highly competitive basketball competition not only to Filipino cagers as usual but providing the same to a wide band of multinational expatriate cagers as of late. More importantly, a booming batch of Saudi basketball players including the army team is getting involved.
An added glitter is the inter-school division among high school cagers where Saudi, Lebanese, American, Yemeni, Filipino and other Asian-African youngsters are getting exposed to a grassroots level of basketball competition never been seen and tried before. These youngsters who are showing surprise moves in the league are a testimony to the surging popularity of basketball as a sport in the Kingdom. The 3rd Saudi Companies Basketball Association is the main organizer combine of the three-month long tournament. The fundamental vision of SCBA President Talat Alam in line with total involvement of his fellow Saudis in basketball is slowly gaining ground as it enjoys the vital sponsorship of Arrow Food Distribution Company. AFDC is the exclusive distributor of Regal Picon, Fruto Natural Juice Drinks, Prince Lu and BiC products represented by its regional manager Matthew Makaraem.
