MUHARRAQ bounced back in style yesterday beating HiTech Bangkok City 97-80 in their second match of the Asian Champions Cup Basketball Championship in Bangkok
In the other Group ‘A’ match yesterday, Naft Abadan of Iran edged out Fubon Braves of Chinese Taipei 68-66 while in Group ‘B’ Al Riyadi pipped Alvark Tokyo 77-75 and Hyundai Mobis routed Guangdong Southern Tigers 93-76.
Muharraq, who lost their opening match to Naft Abadan on Tuesday, started strongly and stayed well ahead of their opponents. They won the first quarter 25-17 and were almost ruthless in the second, outscoring their opponents 33-13 to take a handsome 58-30 lead going into half-time.
The Bangkok club waged a spirited battle in the third and fourth quarters, and won both 22-20 and 28-19, but that was not enough to compensate for their poor showing in the first two quarters.
Imports
Muharraq’s twin US imports Kevin Marquis Murphy (37) and Michael Latrent Harris (24) did more than 50pc of the scoring while Bader Malabes (14) was the only other Muharraq player to get into double figures.
Muharraq are third in Group ‘A’ with three points (-4), same as the Braves (+17) while Naft Abadan top the group with four points and HiTech Bangkok have lost both their matches.
In today’s match, Muharraq clash with Fubon Braves at 11.30am (Bahrain time).
In today’s other matches, Alvark Tokyo clash with Hyundai Mobis (9am), Naft Abadan meet HiTech Bangkok city (2pm) and Al Riyadi take on Guangdong Southern Tigers (4.30pm).