Airnet, Ulker advance; Yummy and Centrepoint win Friday Morning openers

Best Player Millar Daham exploded with 23 points as Airnet arranged a knockout semifinal against Compass with a 68-53 victory over Nesma in the 2012 Boy Tevez Basketball Tournament organized by Overseas Filipino Basketball League (OFBL) at the Time-out Sports Academy on Television Street, Ghulail District on the outskirts of Jeddah. The winner in the Airnet-Compass game gains a shot at waiting finalist Butler for the Inter-Commercial A championship. Butler qualified straight for the best-of-three championship series via a 6-0 sweep of the eliminations. Compass closed out the eliminations by beating Al-Zamil 65-59. In the Inter-Commercial B, Ulker reached the semifinal by beating Jica 59-58 behind the 25 points from Alturas. It will be Ulker against BHBC and Maize against Bicol in a pair of knockout games with the winners to face off in another knockout game for the right to meet Tropapips (6-0) in the title clash in the tournament sponsored by Al-Zugbi Sports Tailoring, Art’s Cuisine, Pepsi, Amaia Escape, Basketball Referees Group (BRG), and Pinoy Photographers Club (PPC). Even though they were trailing in the first half against, Airnet boys never backed down and maintained their composure in the game. Daham waxed hot in the second period, scoring 15 of his total points while Bristol and Binas supported him with a combined 20 points. Gilbert Quintanes led Uker to victory and in the process grabbed Best Player honors with 19 points. Melvin Cabillo added 13 points. Tilo almost singlehandedly carried Jica with 26 points including five threes. Al Zugbi won the game against Team Forty 73-69 in the 40 above Division and the best player was Cudal with 26 points. Meanwhile, Yummy Yummy and Centrepoint scored opening day victories in the Friday Morning 2nd Reinforced Conference. Yummy Yummy had a first game to remember when it brought down defending champion Dabarkadz 65-60 while Centrepoint got its initial victory in a close game against Pepsi. Completing the nine-team field in this Friday league are Tropapips, Nesma, JAL, OBS Automotive and Firewind Rovzky. The Best in Uniform and Best Muse awards went to Pepsi and Yummy Yummy respectively. OFBL also announced ticket reservations for the Jeddah leg of the PBA Legends Kingdom tour Oct. 27 to 29 may be arranged through Boy Teves at 0502205478 or OFBL Facebook account ofbl_jed. The venue at Jeddah is the Green Hall Stadium. Arab news