BASKETBALL – Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai moved a win away from returning to the Fiba WASL-Gulf League Semi-Finals following a 97-87 win over Muharraq last night at the Bahrain Basketball Arena.
The Emirati ball club drew huge performances from Qais Omar Alshabebi, Assane Boye, and Chavaughn Lewis as the trio bannered a strong start before taking turns in steadying the ship in the fourth quarter on the way to taking their best-of-3 qualification to semi-Finals opener.
Third-placers in the Gulf League inaugurals, they will look to finish it off at home in Game 2 next Monday at the Shaikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall in Dubai.
Alshabebi finished with a game-high 29 points and six rebounds. Boye delivered 25 points and 11 rebounds while Lewis came through with a 22-6-8 stat line.
Boye already had 10 points in the opening quarter, while the Alshabebi and Lewis had eight apiece in the said period as they powered Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai’s strong 31-19 start.
The three would also be key in staving off their Bahraini counterparts, with Boye and Lewis helping out Talal Alnuaimi in stringing together a 7-0 run toward a 79-70 advantage approaching the seven-minute mark of the final chapter.
And when Muharraq got to within three twice, Alshabebi would come in to help produce the decisive 11-0 attack to be in control the rest of the way, 91-80 with 4:09 left to play.
Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai missed some players in the match either due to illness or injury, including top scorer Nick Minnerath, yet they still managed to turn in an efficient showing offensively. The team shot 59-percent from the floor, thanks to their 27 assists.
“It wasn’t an easy game especially since the team has four main players that are either ill or injured. I am very happy and proud of the players for putting on a lot of effort. You can obviously see that the team is incomplete, to the extent that three players had more than 20 points, and that shows that they put the extra effort and went the extra mile to make things happen. It wasn’t an easy game,” said Shabab Al Ahli head coach Oualid Zrida.
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