By Danotzki Santos
DOHA: Opening day winners Al Shabeeb, Gulf Ceramic, MIDMAC OFW and Aldar Exchange aim for their second win as eight other squads see action for the first time at the resumption of the 2013-2014 season of the PFASA1 Basketball League tomorrow at the Philippine International School Qatar campus.
Team Al Shabeeb, mentored by Pinoy Basketball of Qatar ace slotman Radel Mallari, notched their first win with a 76-57 hustling of Team Tarsiers in the tournament curtain-raiser late last week.
Shabeeb’s vaunted starters, led by PBAQ stalwarts Pablo Rey Solomon and Richard Raagas, outplayed their counterparts from the starting buzzer and erected an insurmountable 62-32 margin early in the third period, allowing Mallari’s shock troopers to take charge of business in the remainder of the match.
The orange shirts go for their second win, this time against DNSTW, which bowed to Aldar Exchange, 101-90, in their first outing.
Meanwhile Aldar and MIDMAC, which wreaked havoc on Maison Interiors, 102-43, in their first assignment will try to pull one over the other to eke out back-to-back wins.
Gulf Ceramic, after storming past Keppel Infrastructure, 108-50, will have Trojan in the way as they target win number two in the keenly-followed event.
Games in the morning start at 7:30 am with Team Puntos going up against Dad of Steel while inaugural day losers Tarsier and Maison Interiors try to bounce back as they open afternoon hostilities at 1:00 pm.
The other matches will have JA1 going up against Mindoro Spartans, DNW taking on Keppel, while WCT take on the might of Uhaaaw Idols.
The second season of the league kicked-off on October 25 with sixteen (16) participating teams from the Filipino community in Doha joining the opening rites of the event.
Adjudged ‘Best in Uniform’ was Team Al Shabeeb while MIDMAC ran away with the ‘Best Muse’ award during the inaugural day ceremonies.
Organised by PISQ’s faculty and staff, the latest edition of the PFASA basketball tournament features a two-group single-round-robin elimination round with the three frontrunners from each group advancing to the next round.
The six (6) semi-finalists will slug it out in another round-robin series to earn the right for the two berths in the winner-take-all finals. THE PENINSULA
