KUWAIT CITY, Jan 29:  Hamoud scored 17 points including the tie-breaking shot to hand Mathar a narrow 60-59 win over Nasser Sports Club (NSC) on Friday at the ongoing Al-Ektasad United Exchange Compa-ny/Ultimate Tailoring PHIL-BACK 9th conference basketball tournament games in Riggae.
Andy Bucu opened scoring for Mathar with a 2-pointer that paved the way for Rey, Jomel and other teammates to enter the fray with their barrages. But the Dignos and Gueco, NSC’s lead scoring duo who finished the game with 22 and 20 points, led a spirited challenge to the Mathar speedy start but ended the first round trailing by a single point, 13-14.

With the match increasingly looking balanced but slightly in favor of Mathar, both sides upped the pressure in their hunt for the win with the Mathar squad continuing their barrages though the rounds. Hamoud, Rey and Andy led the chase for Mathar, scoring 17, 16 and 16 apiece in the game. Mathar led in the second and third rounds, albeit narrowly, 28-24 and 38-36 but entering the final round, the sports apparel specialists stepped up their game, spurred on by rapturous fans. Just as Mathar was about to take a breath of relief after Andy’s 2-pointer put his side ahead 59-57 in the final minutes, NSC’s Gueco made a 2-point jump to tie the results at 59-59.  Hamoud’s final slot into the NSC basket in the final second made the difference for Mathar who celebrated their 60-59 win at the buzzer.

Americana All-Stars on the other hand, took on Kalexco, winning 71-57. The Americana win was scripted by Simbol who scored 8 of his total 22 points in the first half. The tone he set was quickly picked up by other team members, especially Dayugan and Sotelo who shone in the last round. Dayugan shot a total 15 baskets, while Sotelo got 8. For Kalexco, Carival, Viernes and Sison always found the Americana basket with ease, scoring 20, 12 and 9 apiece in their side’s loss.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Kuwait Steel edged past AH-Go-Sport 57-56 in the third game of the day. Bacucanag opened scoring with a 3-pointer for Kuwait Steel and with support from Labadan was able to open a 7-point lead by the end of the opening round, 17-10.

The inter-company game got tenser as Go-Sport’s Matute and Yap gradually found the opponents’ basket to warm their side into the game, gradually gnawing at their side’s deficit to finish just 3 points down at the halftime mark, 26-29. Sport built on their newfound momentum, surging ahead with barrages to tie scoring, 43-43 at the end of the third round with Labadan accounting for 5 points in the latest run.
Go-Sport’s Matute however gave Steel a scare after he made some dashing moves tearing through the opponent’s defense to slot in a series of 2-pointers to raise his side’s points on the scorecard, tying scores at 56-56. With just seconds left on the clock, Labadan shot a 1-pointer, dashing Go-Sport’s hope for an extended play that would have given them a shot at victory. Game ended 57-56 for Kuwait Steel with Labadan leading the side’s scorecard with 17 while Matute topped all scorers in the match with 21.

Meanwhile Jeff Luage and Sison worked magic for FKTC with 26 and 16 points apiece to outclass Nadec 78-65 in the next Inter-Company encounter. Both sides were very aggressive right off the bat with Luage and Sison leading the attack for FKTC while Alisbo and Casimiro held the fort for Nadec, leading to a 34-34 first half near standoff for both sides.
Though Nadec were able to up their scoring in all rounds, they still lacked the momentum to take the driver’s seat. All their rallies got stymied by the FKTC stalwart defense to the end. Luage kept the FKTC counter clicking in the final stretch to finish with 26 points while Sison contributed 16 in the game that ended 78-65 for FKTC who played an evenly spread out game. Alisbo, the main scorer of the Nadec side finished with 28 to top all scorers in the match to pace his side’s loss in the open division game.

Also in the company category, Heisco suffered a 65-96 defeat at the hands of ITT-Bamberos in the next game.  After drawing first blood with a 3-pointer in the first minute of the encounter, ITT’s Salvadore partnered with Agustin to send their side shooting ahead narrowly, 25-23 in round one. The lead for ITTwas widened further as Amigo and Ramos joined Salvadore and Agustin in their barrages to finish the first half 45-34.
The game continued on the same trend despite both sides’ shots and counter shots at the hoop, ITT gradually widening their lead. The nip and tuck continued into the final minutes with ITT still ahead but Ramos’ final 1-pointer hammered the last nail onto the Heisco coffin to hand ITT-Bamberos the crucial 96-65 win.

Kuwait Flour Mills (KFM) was awarded a default win and 20 points over U-Love as the latter failed to show up in their 5’8” group scheduled match of the 16-match conferences over the weekend. Also in the 5’8” group, the first real encounter saw KPC recover from a point down in the initial round to shoot down Los-Pinas Rebels 62-51.
With Saldivor, MicoDe Guzman, Dwiggins and Aninon scoring 16, 12, 10 and 8 apiece, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation giants easily coasted to a win as the Rebels throughout the game struggled to find their feet despite Jaypee and Daddy scoring 18 and 16 points each to bolster the side. The Rebels were subjected to a moral-draining punishment in the last three rounds as KPC’s Saldivor and Mico upped the pressure to lead in scoring for their side, taking the game to a 62-51 finish. 

In the opening inter-medical encounter, EMT upended ATC 90-60. EMT, thanks to Blanco’s magic, subjected ATC to an energy-sapping punishment all through the four rounds to finish 90-60. The rounds went 16-10, 36-24, 60-36 and finally 90-60 at the buzzer. Blanco shot 19 and Padri 17 in the EMT win. Mercado, Diwa and Mapalisan were also on the loose for the ATC, scoring 16, 9 and 9 for their side.
Meanwhile, Moro Eagles’ full blooded fight against Nature-Spa ended in vain when the former was soundly defeated 91-60 in the next 5’8” group encounter. Intan for Spa scored 26 in the win while Palomama supported with 23 in the well spread-out Nature-Spa game. But with Jamil and Nash shouldering more than half the Eagles, 12 and11 at 33 in total, the Eagles depended on a few of their players to rope in the points.

Avenues Boyz team was beaten 65-60 by Burger King in the next game with Clemente and Robledo starring for Burger King with 26 and 12 points. In other games of the weekend, Nayong-Pilipino edged out Saveco 61-59 while Open Kitchen restaurant thrashed Mismo 8164 in another Open division encounter. In another open division clash, Hasawi outplayed D’Lush 74-67 with Sardena and Dwiggins scoring 25 and 20 apiece in the win while Rudini and Don Don had 22 and 10 each to pace D’Lush’s loss. Spy went down 50-74 to Matrix in the next group-D 5’8” game while Tripple-R also defeated Sadeer 73-63 in group-C with DMC closing the day with a 56-49 win over Tamaraws in the last match.