Move over James Smith, there’s a new Riyadh player to rival your popularity with basketball fans in Jeddah.

Jayson Rex Dandoy, a fleet-footed tiny bundle of energy, wowed the jampacked crowd at Ahmad Khaki Sports Complex (Orca) with his brand of exciting basketball, and along with the Alcasabas brothers Raymond and Rommele led the visiting Lanao-Leyte Warriors to victory over Friendster in the Beat the Best, an Eid Al-Fitr celebration, basketball exhibition event.

The two days event organized by Liga Pinoy in cooperation with WPBL couldn’t have been a better place to be at for basketball enthusiasts looking to spend the holidays as both teams put on a show.

On the first day Thursday Tom Basa nailed a desperation three-pointer with three seconds left as the hosts completed a 78-77 comeback victory in this two-game series exhibition over the Warriors, who are the latest in a line of select Filipino basketball teams from Riyadh to visit Jeddah.

The Fil-Am Smith has long been a fixture in Jeddah as the import player of Cris Melebo’s Friendster squad. For this Liga Pinoy event though Smith disappointed his legion of fans as he was unable to play.

No problem. Enter Dandoy.

For two days during the start of the holidays the 5-foot-7 Dandoy out of Leyte Colleges Tacloban thrilled the crowd, running up and down the court with the speed of a sprinter, directing ball traffic and leading the hustle plays.

The series aggregate score was tied after Lanao Leyte under team manager Don Don Patara and head coach Louie M. Mulles blew a 20-point lead, 50-30, on a three by Raymond to start the third quarter, and had to settle for a similar 1-point margin of victory 79-78 after Recardo Gracilla flubbed a buzzer-beater underneath the basket on an inbound by big Schubert Reposar.

Under FIBA rules exhibition games that ended in tied score will no longer require an overtime period, but the coach and manager from both sides agreed to play a five-minute extension.

For all its gallant stand in the game that saw it lead briefly at 73-70 on two free-throws by Christian Guimpatan with 2:53 to play Friendster simply had no answer to the young legs and energy of the visiting team in the overtime period which ended 14-5 to Lanao-Leyte.

Raymond scored 21 points including a three and clutch floater in overtime for the winning team. Rommelle added five three-pointers for 15 off the bench, while Gracilla and Dandoy each tallied 10 markers.

Guimpatan finished with a night-high 30 points while Basa contributed 19 points for Friendster.

The awarding ceremony took place after the game. Lanao-Leyte received the champion trophy and gold medals for its players in addition to the cash prize.

Mulles was happy with the result of the event and is looking forward to their next trip in this side of basketball town.

Inspired by the success of this project Liga Pinoy Commissioner James Roxas said a bigger regional exhibition is being planned for the Haj holidays with two teams each from Riyadh and Jeddah competing for the top prize.

Also, on behalf of Liga Pinoy-WPBL organizers, Roxas would like to thank all the participating teams, (volleyball -Centerpoint and Runbirds, ALJ Toyota, King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah and Riyadh Maranao (Munai) volleyball team, Jeddah Friendster and Riyadh Paparotti’s Lanao-Leyte basketball teams), for trusting us to stage our 1st Liga Pinoy Beat the Best tournament; our sponsors, management of Ahmad Kaki court, and most of all the spectators from all corners of Jeddah, without whose support this event would not be a success that it is.