BASKETBALL – ANOTHER brilliant performance by the exceptional Mustafa Husain spurred defending champions Manama to a 73-67 victory over Shabab Al Ahli – Dubai in the third Group B game for both teams of the 2023-24 West Asia Super League (WASL) – Gulf Region at the Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Sports Hall in Dubai last night.
Manama have maintained their unbeaten run this season with their third consecutive victory, having beaten Kuwait’s Kazma Club 84-76 and Qatar’s Al Shamal Club 108-71 in their first two games, and now lead the four-team table with six points, two ahead of Shabab Al Ahli – Dubai, for whom this was their first defeat.
Husain, who was the standout player in Manama’s win over Kazma Club with 29 points and contributed 19 points in the victory over Al Shamal Club, scored 29 points to go with four rebounds and two assists last night and ensured that his side would scrape through to a hard-fought win with two successive, and crucial, three-point jump shots in the final moments of the game.
With five minutes left until full-time, Manama led by just three points, at 58-55, with the Dubai club on the charge, having come back from an eight-point deficit (46-38) at the start of the third quarter to start the last 10 minutes of the game just four points behind the Bahraini team, at 53-49.
Hussain, then, easily sank his first three-point jump shot and, less than a minute later, produced his second.
Manama suddenly led by nine points, at 64-55, and, although Shabab Al Ahli’s Nicolas Minnerath – who scored 26 points to go with 10 rebounds – immediately narrowed the gap with a two-point jump shot, Manama’s lead reverted back to nine points, at 66-57, another minute later when Tony Farmer converted two free throws.
Seconds later, Minnerath scored another two-pointer followed by a two-point jump shot by teammate Mohammad Mubarak Alajmani and Manama’s lead had been reduced to just five points, at 66-61, with slightly more than three minutes left.
A foul on Farmer led to him being awarded two free throws but he managed to net only one of them and Manama were now six ahead, at 67-61, with about two minutes left.
Husain, then, produced the victory-defining move of the night, a spectacular three-point jump shot that pushed Manama’s lead back to nine points, at 70-61.
There was only a minute and a half left until the final buzzer and it looked for all intents and purposes that the Dubai club were out of the game but a layup by Qais Omar Alshabebi and two consecutive two-point jump shots by Alajmani – the second with just 58 seconds left on the clock – meant that Shabab Al Ahli – Dubai were now just three points behind Manama, at 70-67.
However, a three-point jump shot by Farmer – who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds – just 15 seconds later ensured that Manama would clinch their third consecutive win of the season.
Earlier, it was Shabab Al Ahli – Dubai who started the game more confidently, ending the first quarter leading 17-16 and making a strong comeback in the second after trailing Manama, 30-23, at one point to eventually troop off the court at half-time, still leading by a solitary point, at 35-34.
Manama regained their rhythm in the third quarter, helped immeasurably by Husain and Farmer managing to score at key moments and setting up the stage for Husain’s heroics in the exciting last few minutes.
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