W-League’s Ramadan Cup recently concluded the Open to all Expatriates (Opex) Basketball Championships Season 7 with team Al Oola winning the final against Chevrolet Qatar, 97-86. The match was played at Al Sadd Sports Club recently.
The winning team was coached by Ron Demaisip and Henry Desiderio and consists of former Filipino professional and collegiate basketball players.
Members of Al Oola are: Nino Gelig, Kemuel Proceso, Ronnie Cajayon, Rodel Mallari, Francis Mercado, Dave Jay Najorda, Jayson Tiongson, Francis De Leon, Jonathan Domangcas, Mardy Limin, Sandy Limin and Jojo Longalong.
The championship match was the third meeting of the two teams with Chevrolet Qatar winning the first two games in the tournament.
Al Oola had a comfortable 16-point lead at the end of the first half.  In the final 10 minutes of the match, Chevrolet refused to give up despite down by 18 points and managed to come up with their own offensive run cutting the lead to 10-points with less than half a quarter to play.
Al Oola’s prolific shooters came to the rescue to finally seal the win and the championship, 97 to 86 points.
Prior to the championship match, individual awards were handed by Commissioner Nur Manguinao and Chairman Laudy Palisoc to the All W-League First Team, composed of Marwan Mohammed Sulaiman and Jerome Castillo of team i-Hoops/Muhel Consultancy; Michel Hakim and Youssef Merjaneh of team Chevrolet; and the guard duo Kemuel Proceso and Nino Gelig from Al Oola.
Chevrolet’s Youssef Merjaneh from Germany was declared the MVP of the tournament, while the final match’s MVP award went to Al Oola’s Nino Gelig.
The i-Hoops/Muhel Consultancy basketball team — composed of upcoming Filipino players reinforced by exciting hoopsters from Kenya, Sudan and USA — took home the third place.
W-League Qatar’s Season 8 Filipino Expatriates (Filex) basketball tournament also opened recently where popular teams like Lucky Seven, Kentz, PSME, One Family, Batangas, Guardians, Obra, Sidra and Jireh Heero are ready to challenge defending champion Batang Sanna.
To give an opportunity to Filipino basketball players who are new in Qatar, the league is opening its doors to new teams in Season 9 for the Class-C Division. Registrations have started, with the opening scheduled for September 25.

                                                                                                                  Photo by Jon Literal