Manama stormed into the semi-finals after Mustafa Husain, Travin Thibodeaux and Sir’Dominic Pointer combined to consign Beirut First Club to an 86-75 defeat last night in their second Group A game of the FIBA WASL Final 8 series at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall in Dubai.
Husain scored 16 points to go with three rebounds and five assists, Thibodeaux tallied 15 points along with six rebounds and two assists and Pointer netted 14 points with eight rebounds and two assists as Manama galloped to a 50-38 lead at half-time and led 66-58 when the fourth and last quarter began.
With five minutes remaining, Manama had increased their lead to 10 points at 76-66 and, when the game entered its last two minutes, seemed assured of victory as they led 82-69.
Fittingly, with just three seconds left till the final buzzer, it was Husain who scored the last two points for Manama to take the final score to 86-75 and seal a dominant win.
This was a must-win game for both teams, after Manama lost their first game, 112-84, to group leaders Al Riyadi, the FIBA WASL West Asia champions Al Riyadi, from Lebanon, last Saturday and Beirut Club were also hammered, 106-91, by their Lebanese compatriots two days ago.
This meant that Al Riyadi sailed through to the semi-finals after topping the Group A table with four points leaving Manama, the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL)-Gulf Region runners-up, to battle it out with FIBA WASL West Asia runners-up Beirut Club for the remaining semi-final slot from their group.
Having placed second in their group with three points, Manama will now take on Group B toppers BC Astana, from Kazakhstan, in the first semi-final tomorrow while Al Riyadi will face Kuwait Club in the second.
Seven teams, including the top three sides each from the FIBA WASL West Asia and WASL-Gulf leagues plus the top teams from South and Central Asia, have taken part in the competition which began last Friday with the opening game of the tournament between Kazakhstan’s BC Astana and Shabab Al Ahli from Dubai.
Chennai Heat, the 2023 Indian National Basketball League (INBL) champions, were supposed to be the eighth team in the tournament but they pulled out of the tournament last week, leaving just three teams, including Manama, in Group A.
Group B featured Kuwait Club, Shabab Al Ahli, Iran’s Gorgan and BC Astana.
Whichever two teams make it to the final will automatically qualify for the FIBA Champions Cup which provides the pathway to the international basketball body’s leading club competition – the Intercontinental Cup.