Five popular professional teams of Pinoy Basketball Qatar (PIBAQ) have been seeing action at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena as part of a partnership with the Qatar Basketball Federation (QBF).
Hundreds of Filipino fans have been attending the games to watch their favourite players in action in the PIBAQ’s Subaru Cup 2012.
On Friday, former MVP Radel Mallari lifted Batang Isarog to another exciting victory, 95-89, against newcomers Jewel Advertising.
Mallari, a former stand-out of the Philippine Basketball Association, poured in a whopping 43 points in the match.
The reliable combination of Bryan Tolentino with 26 points and Nino Minaz and Poldong Rodriguez who both contributed 22 points each plus the successive three-point plays of Willy Layag were not enough to give Jewel Advertising their first victory
In Division 2, Dukhan Ballers led by CJ Casas dumped their sister team QP Dukhan, 68-52, to lead the league with four wins and no losses.
The two teams organised by the Filipino workers of Qatar Petroleum in Dukhan community have been doing well and are on top of the standings in Division 2.
In other games, QDVC LRT escaped to a narrow victory over KBAS Contracting, 75-74, after the buzzer-beating conversion by Archie Palconit with three seconds left even as former MVP Pocholo Santos tried to lead a rally for his team with 17 points.
Gilas-3 suffered a heartbreaking loss at the hands of Karwa Mowasalat who pulled away to win the game, 93-79.
Other winners were KIA Motors against IMCO Engineering, 76-71; Consultants-Ralos against Qatar Knights, 66-58; Natsco Garage over Smeet Precast, 80-43 and Familia Bisdak against Al Dar Exchange, 71-64.