JEDDAH, 3 May — AMS-Baeshen claimed their fourth straight victory with a 62-55 thumping over Dynarabia Fire Rescue and now looms almost exactly the same dangerous team that it was a year ago when it snared the championship in the inter-company division. Danube Green Farms thirsting for the piece of the action likewise kept pace with the victors hacking out a 70-66 decision over Sawary BiC in the inter-supermarket division.
Arrow Food Distribution Company headed by GM Elie Sioufi and Georges Sioufi (Business Development Manager) principally sponsors the 3rd Saudi Companies Basketball Association cagefest, which attracted 39 teams in its opening ceremony a month ago. AFDC is the exclusive distributor of Fruto Juice Drinks (Samir Bouari, DGM), BiC products (Ayman Mahmoud, Division manager), Regal Picon (Syed Mohd Noorie, Product Manager), and Prince LU biscuits (Matthew Makaraem, Regional Manager-Jeddah). Other sponsors include Swatch Watch, House of Donuts, Pringles, Snickers, Manarat Café, U-Right Kids and ITCO.
Nolan ‘‘The Fearless’’ Cachero, who looks deceptively so diminutive and so skinny chunk of a point guard continued making wonders topscoring with 22 points while sweet-shooting Boying Liwag drained five three-pointers out of his 17 as they provided the lethal one-two punch for the teamakers. Lucero added 16 points and the trio’s combined output matched the team production of skidding Dynarabia who had only two players Art Oliva and Langamin hitting double digits of 15 and 10.
Rowen Villegas and M. Calayo led Danube-Green Farms, coached by Ronald Luis, with 17 and 16 markers and their teammates scattered 5 or more points among themselves to remain undefeated in three games. Mon Bautista and Jun Teruel led the losers scoring 24 and 20.
Coach Rolly Santos’ Al-Raya (Luna) riding high on a balanced scoring had five of their players score in double figures and pounded Panda (Pepsi), 95-82.
Chris Bondoc topscored with 18 points and the duo of Gary Santos and Bong de Leon made 16 each while Allan Zorilla and Tony de Leon contributed 15 and 13 for the Luna dairy specialists. Joseph Diaz led the losing Panda team as usual with 30 points while Caparas added 17. One of the fastest rising basketball gems from Egypt, Osama, was an unstoppable demolition force for Mountain Dew as he waylaid all defenders thrown at him scoring 17 fourth quarter points out of his total 48 points in a 89-83 victory over ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel.
Allan Zorilla and R. Gonzales added 18 and 13 points for the soft drink makers of coach R. Buendia.
TFC although it has shown a never-say-die attitude in their two previous losses suffers from a lack of dependable center and their opponents can easily read their offensive patterns having to concentrate their defense on the trio of AJ Marcelino, Rene Consignado and Nelson Ducha.
In the inter-school division, Prince LU was almost removed from the championship stake but managed to squeak past House of Donuts by a hairline, 70-69, in the sudden death crossover semifinals.
House of Donuts had many chances of pulling a giant-killing upset leading 69-68 and had their best player A. F. Shadi on the free throw line with 9.4 seconds remaining in the game. Shadi missed both free throws and Prince Lu’s Hussamy went for a lay-up grabbing the lead with 1.5 seconds left prompting one of the overjoyed Thamer International School cagers to remove his shirt in jubilation while still inside the playing court.
The referees took notice and slapped a technical for Prince Lu and the chance for House of Donuts to steal the game with one technical throw plus ball possession, but Shadi again missed the all-important charity and time run out on them in the ensuing play.
