The Basketballers 2012 Safari Basketball Association (SBA) Invitational Basketball Tournament kicked off last Friday with a colorful opening ceremony before an overflow crowd at Safari New Camp (SNC) sports ground on the outskirts of Jeddah.

Twelve teams paraded in their uniforms during the ceremony. Chief guest Consul Leo Tito L. Ausan Jr. of the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah awarded the Best Team in Uniform trophy to Masco. Labor Attache Alejandro A. Padaen of (Philippine Overseas Labor Office) POLO-Western Region was also present.

Master Nestor Cuizon Suliva, SBA –KAIA founder-chairman-commissioner, emceed the affair and delivered the welcome address.

Suliva delighted the audience when he performed blindfold and in sitting position a mixed martial arts exhibition, showing very sophisticated techniques off attacker Cohai Windy Bertoldo. Suliva is a 9th dan blackbelt, the highest-ranked Filipino martial arts expert in Middle East and the founder-chief instructor of Philippine Arbokaido Martial Arts Club (PAMAC) International and founder-president of Philippine Martial Arts Sports Association (PHILMASA) International.

SIPCO (Saudi Industrial Projects Company), the distributor of Pepsi Cola beverages in the Western Region, is the tournament sponsor. Co-sponsors include Arab News, ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel (TFC), PAMAC Int’l., PHILMASA Int’l, Cube Root Restaurant and Graal’s Beauty Saloon.

Thanks to the organizing committee including Noel V. Reyes (technical director) and Rey “Amarz” Amarille (adviser) the tournament launch was a big success. Among the VIP guests were Gamal M. Bushara, SNC manager, Bobby L. Victoriano, SNC assistant manager, and Ben M. Ramiscal. Suliva noted the night was special for all gathered at SNC in that a consul and labor attaché attended the event.

JOG referees John Lee and Romyr Cabalu, with the support of the JOG Chairman Noel Miguel and assisted by Jonathan Canda, officiated the opening games.

Masco 76 High Speed Rail 67: Masco had a fine start. The timely passes, brilliant assists and rebounds worked for Masco which got a big lift from the trio of Garbo, Panares and Libay who scored 16, 15 and 14 points in that order. Haramain High Speed Rail, coached by V. Labyan with R. Myyalde as team manager and R. Calungcarin as assistant coach, tried to put up a tough fight with a tight defense and fine hits from their front liners Labayan, Loveriz and Henares. But Masco pulled away from a 64-all in the last four minutes behind the barreling drives and fast break conversions from Panares and Libay and consecutive threes by Garbo.

GACA-ANS 88 Saudi Electricity 82: Lagnayo, Figueroa, Icaualo took charge for GACA-ANS in the first half. However, Saudi Electricity utilized its high voltage assaults under the command of Sipe and Lopez to keep the game touch-and-go. The game registered 10 deadlocks the last at 80-all.

Lagnayo led GACA-ANS with 23 points, while Sipe finished with 19 points for Saudi Electricity.