Zahid Tractor of Faraj Tarhini won its first game while Al Jomaih GMC2 and Al Jazirah Ford rolled to their second wins during the third week of action in the E. A. Juffali & Brothers 9th Basketball League at the Juffali Staff Compound basketball court on Khurais road here.

Zahid scored a 93-72 victory over winless Drake & Skull. Coaches Alex Paragoso and Tonton Somera banked on Abel Dayrit, Joel Villania, Richard Asay, Aries Custodio and Jonathan Villahermosa to lead the fight, increasing a 19-16 first quarter lead to 21 points, 48-27, at halftime. It’s all a matter of game management after that as Alkasabi Abubakar and Jayson Pacheco joined in the Zahid rampage.

Ariel Asilum of the winning team converted the first basket of this ballgame, while JACO’s Eli Lisondra, in teamwork with JR Gragasin, Marvin Naguit, Ronald Razon and Nilo Martinez took the opening period driver’s seat to take a hairline 22-21 lead and tied at 43 to end the second canto. They continued their domination until the end of the third quarter 70-67.

The tempo of the game changed during the last period when high leaping cager Gragasin was sidelined by injury with 8 minutes left in the ballgame. Oliver Tripoli and Eduard Equipelag of Al Jomaih GMC2 of Peter Gallobo gained control via consecutive 3-point shots but JACO tied it up at 84 on Razon’s lay-up shots followed by a 3 pointer. With less than a minute left in the ballgame, Al Jomaih’s topscorer Oliver Sambilay converted the shots awarded to him from a foul and his follow-up shot paved the way to the victory, 102-97.

Al Jazirah Ford of Larry Leyva and Randolf Aspecto handed BMW its third loss 97-90. The game started with a very stiff competition between point guards Randolph Maralit of Ford and Ronald Gayo of BMW. It was a see-saw battle during the first half where Ford took the first quarter 19-16 before the second finished tied at 41-41. BMW got the chance to recover when Ford’s center and leading scorer Domingo Apuyan committed a foul and Gayo converted his charity shots to put the score at 70-70. Jonathan Cortel and Ronald Jose launched 3-point shots at crunch time that made the difference for Jazirah Ford.

Elsewhere, Ericsson scored its first win at the expense of JACO2 74-58 in the Inter-Department category. In Inter-Automotive games, Al Ayuni recovered from its last defeat with an an easy 77-57 victory over Petromin B while Al Jomaih GMC1 posted its second win against RGTS1 101-91.

The tournament enjoys the generous support of E. A. Juffali & Brothers Company management. The sponsors and supporters include JACO Mercedes Benz through Shane Loterring, JIPCO through Ali Bistawi, Western Union through Nomer Cuartero and Flash Cargo of Arnold Dela Cruz.