Manama sauntered to a dominant, 105-74, win over Al Nassr Riyadh last night in a West Asia Super League (WASL)-Gulf Region Group B game at the Zain Basketball Arena.
Having entered the fourth and final quarter leading 74-64, Manama ran away with the game, scoring 31 points to their opponents’ 10 to wrap up an emphatic victory.
The victory – Manama’s second consecutive win in the group stage and, also, their second in succession over Al Nassr – means that they now head the four-team table with seven points from their three wins and one loss in four matches.
Manama’s 31-point win equalled the second-largest winning margin in the tournament, set by Shabab Al Alhli-Dubai just six days ago in their 92-61 Group A win over Al Bashaer in Dubai.
Al Nassr, meanwhile, have lost all four of their matches so far and languish at the bottom of the table.
The turning point of the game came in the second quarter when, after having led 24-19 in the first, Manama turned on the heat, scoring 30 points to Al Nassr’s 22 to lead 54-41 at half time.
The Saudi club tried to make a recovery of sorts in the third quarter, but even though they scored 23 points to Manama’s 20, they were still trailing by ten points when the fourth quarter started.
Charles Garcia top-scored for Manama with 18 points to go along with his two assists and seven rebounds while Lamonte Ulmer wasn’t far behind with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Hasan Mohamed also had a good game, scoring 13 points with Mustafa Husein and Elijah Robinson netting 12 points each.
“We played very maturely,” Garcia said in a post-match interview. “We executed very well.
“I started off with a couple of fouls so I told myself to keep my head and just played my game.
“The coach said ‘calm down’ which I did, and the result played out well.”
Manama will take on Kuwait Club – who beat them, 91-88, in the kingdom last December – next in the return fixture between the two teams in Kuwait on March 13.
Their last group game is against Al Sadd – whom they defeated 99-94 in early January in Doha – on March 21 at home in Bahrain.
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