KUWAIT CITY, July 1: Hilton Resort Kuwait handed Crowne Plaza their first defeat of the tournament while maintaining their own unbeaten record to retain the top spot in the 4th Inter-Company Championship at the Bayan Bilingual School in Jabriya.
Three matches had been scheduled in the inter-company tournament but only two of these took place as the first game of the day saw MOH gain maximum points with a victory by default after their opponents Bayan failed to turn up for their match.
In the other two matches, Hilton Resort Kuwait showed their skills when they outlasted a tough Crowne Plaza side 76-73 while Holiday Inn stopped Safir International from moving up the table with a 69-64 victory.
While all the matches of the 4th Inter-Company Championship were played in the morning, the afternoon session was taken by the 3rd Al Sayer Basketball League - organized by Toyota Basketball Association of Kuwait (TBAK) - which was inaugurated on the same day at the same venue.

The Al Sayer tournament, besides the opening ceremony, saw four teams in action on the first day of the event with the CBS Garage mechanic team outplaying Toyota Ahmadi 53-44 while in the second, Lexus Garage overcame Ghazali Garage 53-47.
These quality ballgames are being officiated by Filipino Basketball League (FBL) - Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) headed by Commissioner Demos Arienda along with the following group of committed office-bearers who consistently strive to provide deliver quality matches: James Miranda and Victoria Apostol — Time and Score Keeper, BAP Referees — Ferdie Tadena, Aries Buenaventura, George Panganiban, Toots Apostol, Baylon Tenorio and Joel Acuna — FBL President.
While the Al Sayer tournament is only being officiated by FBL-BAP officials, the inter-company event sees both the officiating and organization being done by the FBL-BAP office-bearers.
On the other hand, the organizers have announced that 22nd Conference Open Category will open on July 29 while the 1st Inter-Hotel Championship is scheduled to start on Sept 1.

Inter-Company Championship
Hilton vs Crowne Plaza
Hilton Kuwait Resort are proving to be a class act as they continue to outplay team after team in this tournament. This Friday, Hilton were at their best again as they notched a 76-73 victory over Crowne Plaza to end the latter’s unbeaten record.
This week’s victory was the fifth in a row for the strong Hilton squad. With this triumph they have now won all the matches they have played in this tournament to take the top spot while Crowne Plaza stayed second in spite of their defeat with three wins in four games.
Both the teams were evenly matched and this was evident from the fact that they adopted a tight defense as the first quarter ended 15-15 with neither side giving anything away. For Crowne Plaza Atong, the captain of the side, got five points while Medina scored four while Ortega chipped in with a three-pointer.

Hilton, realizing the tremendous potential of their opponents, put their foot down hard on the accelerator in the 2nd quarter to score 18 points while restricting their rivals to 12 to take a 6-point lead with the score 33-27 at the end of the first half. Pangilinan was the top scorer for Crowne Plaza while Nice and Marwan had six points apiece for Hilton to keep their teams ahead.
The third quarter saw Hilton stretch their advantage to nine points as Crowne Plaza buckled under the pressure. Hilton scored 23 points while Crowne tried to get back into the match with 20 points. Jerive Realin was the main point-getter for Hilton with 11 points while Marwan chipped in with eight and Nice got four.Manalo got seven and Gomez six for Crowne Plaza with the quarter ending 56-47 in favor of Hilton.

The final quarter saw Crowne Plaza make a huge effort to take the match and Hilton were lucky that they had built up the 9-point lead by the start of this quarter as their opponents scored 26 points while restricting them to 20.
Crowne Plaza’s Medina scored nine points and Ortega got eight but Hilton’s Wang kept putting in the free throws to collect 14 points to give his team a three-point victory with the score 76-73 in favor of Hilton at the final buzzer.
Hilton Kuwait Resort’s Nice Garcia was given the Best Player of the Game award for his excellent all-round game.
Holiday Inn vs Safir
The third match of the day was also a closely-fought affair with Holiday Inn holding on after putting in an excellent final quarter to beat Safir International 69-64.
Holiday Inn got off to a quick start in the first quarter with their captain Saldy Felipe putting in a great performance with 10 points while Safir were kept down to only 11with Holiday Inn finishing the quarter ahead by 16-11 points.
Jolted into action by Holiday Inn’s first-quarter performance , Safir showed that they could hold their own when they cut their opponent’s lead to only one point by the end of the second quarter with the score 28-27 in favor of Holiday Inn.
Safir scored 16 points in this quarter while restricting their rivals to only 12 with equal contributions coming in from all their players and their captain Malijan scoring six points. For Holiday Inn , Felipe got six points while Mohammed scored four to make sure that their team stayed ahead.
The honors in the third quarter were evenly shared with both the teams scoring 21 points each as Holiday Inn maintained their one-point lead with the score 49-48. Prats was the top scorer in this quarter for Holiday Inn with 11 points while Mohammed gave him good support with six points. For Safir, it was Valencia who kept them in the game with nine points.
Realizing that the margin of lead was too slim and their opponents could take the match away from them, Holiday Inn put their foot down on the accelerator to score 20 points in the last quarter and at the same time put up a tight defense to keep their opponents down to only 16 points to win the match by five points and the score 69-64 at the final buzzer.
Garcia and Guerrero scored six points each while Prats chipped in with four points to give Holiday Inn the victory. Natividad scored six points while Nerpio and Dungca got four each as they tried to keep Safir in the match but to no avail.
Holiday Inn and Safir International have both now scored two victories each in this tournament but Holiday Inn have played one game less than their opponents to stay ahead of them in the standings.
The Best Player of the Game award was given to #16 Saldy Felipe of Holiday Inn after he not only kept his opponents at bay but also scored 20 points for his team.
MOH vs Bayan Palace
MOH scored their second win of the tournament without even having to do anything when their opponents Bayan Palace failed to wake up for the first match of the morning and could not reach the courts for the 0730 hours start and had to default the game.
It was an important two points for MOH as it moved them up to 4th place with two wins in their three matches while the loss made no difference to Bayan as they have lost all their five matches and are lying at the bottom of the table with hardly any chances of moving up.
Initial Standings
Rank Teams W L
1 Hilton Kuwait Resort 5 0
2 Crowne Plaza 3 1
3 Kuwait Energy 3 2
6 Safir International 2 3
4 MOH 2 1
5 Holiday Inn 2 2
7 Baroue 1 2
8 Al Tazaj 1 3
9 Bayan Palace 0 5
FBL-BAP organizers would like to offer their special thanks to their major sponsor Mohamed Aba Zid - General Manager of Al Fuad Exchange.
Al Sayer Basketball League
With all the FBL matches being played in the morning, the afternoon session at Bayan Bilingual School saw the 3rd Al Sayer Basketball League, organized by Toyota Basketball Association of Kuwait (TBAK), being inaugurated in a simple yet impressive ceremony.
The event started off with the guests and the audience being welcomed by Carmela Cruz, followed by the team parade with the teams being introduced by Jonathan Batomalaque — the TBAK Commissioner.
The following teams are taking part in the event:
1.Ahmadi Garage
2.Al Rai Garage
3.CBS Garage Mechanics
4.CBS Garage Body & Paint Team
5.Ghazali Garage
6.Jahra Garage
7.Lexus Garage
8.Spare Parts Department
The team parade was followed by the playing of Kuwait and Philippines national anthems .The Oath of Sportsmanship was then headed by Jonathan M. Po - TBAK President- who then took to the floor to provide some highlights on TBAK and also thank Al Sayer and all the guests for the tremendous support that they are providing to the event.
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Hilton down Holiday
After the opening speech, the audience saw Ahmadi Garage take the award for the Best Muse while Spare Parts Department were voted the Best in Uniform with the presentation of these awards being done by Rea Ureta, Philippines Embassy’s Vice Consul for Consular Affairs and Engineer Mohammed Hussein, Manager of the Al Sayer Toyota and Lexus Training Center.
The inspiration speeches were then delivered by Rea Ureta and Engineer Hussein followed by the opening game toss which saw the participation of Ureta, Jonathan Po and Jonathan Batomalaque.
The guest list at the event, besides the ones mentioned above, included Engineeer Abo Zaur, Service Manager - Al Rai & Jahra Garage, Muammar Ali Hassan - Political & Economic Officer at the Philippines Embassy and Darren.
With the impressive opening ceremony out of the way it was time for action which saw Ahmadi Garage take on the CBS Garage Mechanics team while the second match was a clash between Lexus Garage and Ghazali Garage.
Unlike in the FBL, where the matches see an actual playing time — in the four 10-minute quarters — of 40 minutes with the clock being stopped every time the ball goes out of play or if there is a foul, the Al Sayer tournament is being played on a running time of 40 minutes, four quarters of 10 minutes, but the clock continuing to tick regardless of fouls or even when the ball is out of play.
CBS vs Ahmadi
The CBS Garage Mechanics started off the tournament on a great note with a victory over the Ahmadi Garage in a low-scoring match which saw them win 53-44.
CBS made their intentions clear right from the start when they took a 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter with Hernandez scoring 5 points, including a three-pointer, for the ultimate winners but their rivals stayed in the match with Domingo scoring four points for them.
CBS continued to control the match after taking the lead and did not let their opponents back into the match with their lead increasing steadily in every quarter right until the very end of the match before they emerged nine-point 53-44 victors when the final buzzer sounded.

For CBS, Grape was the destroyer-in-chief with 14 points in the game and he got some good support from Al Quitos who chipped in with 11points.The other players also kept providing one or two baskets each to keep their team ahead .For Ahmadi, Murillo tried to keep his team in the game with 11points while he got some good support from Domingo and Nicor with eight and seven points respectively.

Lexus vs Ghazali
The second match was also a closely-fought affair with Lexus Garage dominating the proceedings to emerge with a 53-47 points victory and start the tournament on a solid footing.
Lexus started the game with two three-pointers from Maqusib and it was he who was the main architect of their victory as he kept penetrating the rival defense at regular intervals to keep them on their toes.

This match was a low-scoring affair again because of the match being played on a running time as by the end of the third quarter the score was only 34-28 in favor of Lexus.
The highest score in any quarter came in the final one with both the teams collecting 19 points each as Lexus and Ghazali tried to take control of the match but the damage had been done by the end of the third quarter and there was not much Ghazali could do to get back into the match.
The clock seemed to tick fast for Ghazali and it was not long before the final buzzer sounded and Lexus took the match 53-47.
Lexus owe their victory to Maqusib who did nearly 50 percent of their scoring by collecting 26 points and he got some very support from Mico who chipped in with 15 points.
Maqusib’s was very good with his distance shooting and this was what troubled Ghazali as they could not stop him from repeatedly firing in three-pointers.By the end of the match , Maqusib had scored five long shots.

For the losers, Samson and Velasquez tried to keep them in the game with 11 points each while Buendia and Bong gave them a lot of support with 8 points each but in the end all the efforts were “ too little , too late” as Lexus refused to succumb under the pressure and were very determined to make a winning start to the tournament.
All the Al Sayer Basketball League teams will be seen in action on Friday afternoons at the Bayan Bilingual with the FBL matches being played in the morning.
From the first week of play, these teams have shown a lot of potential and skills backed by tons of determination to win .As the tournament progresses and the excitement builds up, basketball enthusiasts are expected to be provided a treat with some very close games.
For more information on the Al Sayer tournament, contact Jo Po 67095168, Carmela 66549044 or Jo Go 66221819.