After little success in the past, Friendster seemed to have the Spicy Fingers Explosive’s number when it scored a 92-86 victory last Friday in Game 1 of their best-of-three series for the Inter-Commercial Open Rated Division championship in the 2nd Nokia-Asha and 35th FBA season basketball tournament at the Sheraton Jeddah Hotel Sport Complex court.

Friendster established control early in the game behind another fluid display that left its archrival in chase to no avail.

Morsi Akad enjoyed another big game for Friendster as did Zyad Pascual and Best Player of the game Christian Guimpatan to finish with 21, 18 and 17 points respectively as Friendster led by as many as 12 points, and though Spicy Fingers came within a point behind their team leader Boyet Bautista in the closing minutes Cris Melebo’s charges played stronger than the score indicated.

Three-point specialist Tom Basa added 17 points, big man Salman had 10 and fresh from vacation Ron Magat 7 for Friendster which will be looking to close out the series via a sweep in Game 2 at 7:30 p.m. today.

Bautista, a former Purefoods guard in the PBA, led all scorers with 38 points while Joseph Ubalde, the other half in the Spicy’s 1-2 offensive punch, tallied 22 points. No other Spicy player scored in double figures with Panganiban on 7 points and Dela Paz 6.

The high intensity if physical game had Ubalde and teammate Mark Elamparo fouling out in the payoff period. Also, Pascual and Basa had been in foul trouble. Mohamed Bayoumi, friend of the Filipino community and the link between the Filipino and Arab basketball communities, conducted a pre-game briefing for both teams aimed at impressing upon players the spirit of sportsmanship at all times.

Action further heated up as the tournament winds down to its last two weeks. Extended battles marked Friday’s Week 17 games.

KFAFH, with Best Player Jay Liam scoring 27 points, brought down Saudi German Hospital in double overtime 91-81 to reach the Inter-Hospital Reinforced Division final opposite Salam Home Healthcare, an 83-80 winner over Fakeeh Hospital in the other semifinal game Thursday.

New Breed Al-Shaya negated the twice-to-beat edge of hitherto unbeaten Silencer -2 by pulling off an 86-83 victory that threw their Inter-Company Bonafide B semifinal matchup to a winner-take-all affair at 6 p.m. today.

The winner of the New Breed-Silencer-2 semifinal faces Focus Ad, which beat ITC 94-92 in the fourth game Friday, in a knockout final game.

Thursday, team manager Jimmy Abdullah Beltran got his chance to win a championship at six different major tournaments after his Toyota Sequoia qualified for the Inter-Company A final against KIA Motors by beating Giordano-Juffali 89-79.

This is the first time Beltran’s squad reached an FBA final after they lost to Muhaidib in the semifinal two years ago.

Sequoia was the better team on the night, leading by as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter but then relaxed its grip to allow the enemy within 4 points with 28 seconds left in the game.

Intrepid and Ford Al Jazeera Raptors arranged a championship clash in the Inter-Company C following easy semifinal victories over Jeddah Eagles 68-49 and Al Mabani 79-64 during the first two games Thursday.

Nokia Asha is the major sponsor of the most prestigious and longest running tournament in this side of basketball town. Gulf Bridge Eppolight, Faris Group, House of Donuts and Lifestylez are co-sponsors. Also coming on board as co-sponsor through Branch Manager Jesjam Abo Elenin is Azal World, distributor of Main ‘n Tail products, popular among Filipinos, in the Kingdom.