Al Mabani dug deep and hammered out an improbable 83-81 overtime victory over top seed Sweet Bloomer in a knockout game for the Inter-Company B championship while Princeton and Maharlikans set up their own final clash in the Inter-Commercial Open Non Rated during the 19th and penultimate week in the Microsoft Lumia & 36th FBA Basketball Tournament at the Sheraton Jeddah Hotel court.

The Lebanese Community Basketball Team of coach Hassan Zeineddein with support from Consul General Ziad Atallah overcame a 16-point second quarter deficit and finished pulling away in an 84-61 victory over Western Union in Game 1 of the Inter-Commercial Open Rated championship series Friday, while Uncle Majid Rice & Toppings of Francis Magat moved within a game of retaining the Inter-Hotel and Restaurant title by whipping No. 1 Durrat Al Arous for the second straight time 86-65.

The loss was the final nail on a meltdown by Durrat which was unbeaten and the top seed in the semifinals only to lose its grip on what started as an impressive title run despite the twice to beat edge over the unflappable Uncle Majid, which could go all the way from being the No. 4 seed to champion again by beating Jeddah Hilton in their title game Thursday night.

Junbarkads (Maharlikans) and AVK won their semifinals against Saudi German Hospital 92-74 and Lifestyle 98-78 to arrange a title showdown for the Inter-Company C.

The Junbarkads victory gives manager Jun Mejia a chance for a double championship that could come within hours of each other. The Junbarkads-AVK is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday while Junbarkads sister team Maharlikans will go for the Open Non Rated crown against Princeton at 8:30 p.m.

While Princeton had a relatively easy time against Toyota ALJ-CDC 97-75 thanks to Best Player Amir Muhannad, who scattered 32 points, Maharlikans needed overtime to put away Nexus 95-88. The regulation period ended 81-all. Kursit Ismael top-scored with 30 points, Cutamora added 26 and Best Player Greason had 16 for Maharlikans.

Sweet Bloomer was seconds away from the title when its top player Amparado made a costly mistake and allowed underdog Mabani to force overtime 72-72. It was close in the extra period and Best Player Loyola hit the winning basket for Mabani which had seemed dispirited after being still behind in the closing minutes.

Loyola scored 14 points with Romel Mañalac the top scorer on 27 while also doing a good job on defense for Mabani which also had Tuazon and Javier scoring 12 and 10 points.

Uncle Majid buried Durrat to a 25-point deficit hole in the second quarter and never looked back in a solid display of firepower that had its rival throwing in the towel before the last three minutes mark in the game.

Uncle Majid’s Ron Magat with 28 points was Best Player of the game.

Western Union enjoyed a 30-14 lead on a three by Ziad Pascual with 3:44 left in the second quarter. The bigger and taller Lebanese easily erased the enemy advantage, and a three-pointer and two free throws by Jad Kaddara brought the score to 30-all at the end of the period.

With several scoring options, as Ramzi, Tartaq and Tarek Al Eter helped ease the offensive load on Kaddara, the Lebanese took control in the third quarter.

And Western Union didn’t help its cause when Salman, who held his own against the Lebanese in the paint, committed his fourth foul with 2:48 left in the third quarter and coach Hasan’s boys ahead by 50-39 that eventually increased to 17 points at 64-47 on Eter’s second dunk of the night with 5:09 to play.

Ramzi wound up with 24 points and was named Best Player of the game, Jad made 13 points and Tartaz 10.

Elsewhere, Freyssinet advanced to the Inter-Company D championship against the waiting Westside Beesline with an 83-79 victory over Darjana in the first game Thursday.

In knockout games for third and fourth place, Lifestyle crushed Saudi German Hospital 82-47 in Inter-Company C and Nesma downed Sadia 89-82 in Inter-Company B.