BASKETBALL – Bahrain made a rousing start to their gold medal bid at home last night in the 26th Arab Men’s Basketball Championship.
The kingdom’s senior men’s basketball national team – gunning for their historic first-ever title in the regional competition – outplayed Qatar’s tournament representatives 72-61 at Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town.
The hosts were in control for virtually the entire contest and pulled away from their rivals in the second half. They led by as many as 18 points in the final quarter en route to securing the double-digit victory, much to the delight of their home fans.
In attendance for Bahrain’s win were Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) vice-president Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) president Alaa Mudara, and other high-ranking BBA and Arab Basketball Confederation (ABC) officials.
The tournament is being held under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and BOC president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and it features seven of the region’s leading basketball nations.
Play is being played in league format, with the top-ranked side at the end of a single round-robin being crowned champions.
Also emerging triumphant yesterday were Algeria and the UAE. The Algerians claimed a narrow 86-81 victory against Tunisia, while the Emiratis defeated Kuwait 87-79.
In Bahrain’s game against the Qataris, who are fielding their B national team in this ABC tournament, they held their rivals to single digits in a low-scoring opening period, which ended 14-6. The nationals stretched their advantage to 31-24 at the half, as Qatar were able to stay within striking distance leading up to the interval.
After the restart, an Ali Jaber lay-up put them up by more than 10, 35-24, for the first time all night, and later two JaKarr Sampson free-throws made it 48-32. A Sampson dunk helped the Bahrainis go into the final canto with a 50-37 cushion, and then in the fourth, Sampson again scored with a driving lay-up to make it 55-37 for their biggest lead.
Bahrain went up by 18 once again following a Mohammed Ameer basket with a little more than five minutes left on the clock. They then cruised to the finish line from there for their opening win.
Sampson had a game-high 26 points while Mustafa Hussain added 22 along with an impressive 13 rebounds. Wayne Chism added five points in just 20 minutes of work, while Ahmed Salman had four and both Jaber and Subah Hussain scored three each.
For Qatar, Dejan Janik was their only player in double figures with 22 points while also taking down 11 rebounds. Raslan Alabdulla and Abdulla Moosa added nine points apiece.
Bahrain are back in action today when they take on the UAE at 8pm at the same venue. Also on the second day’s schedule, Tunisia and Kuwait face off at 4pm followed by defending champions Egypt getting their campaign underway against Qatar at 6pm.
In yesterday’s other fixtures, Sedoud Chakib paced Algeria with 21 points in their triumph against Tunisia. Skipper Briki Sofiane added 14 and Koob Moussaab had 12.
Omar Ababa scored 13 for the Tunisians, while Wassef Methnani, Bilel Jaziri, and Ahmed Addami all finished with 11 points apiece.
For the UAE, who enjoyed leads as big as 17 markers against Kuwait, Qais Al Shabibi and Demarco Dickerson combined for 50 points. Al Shabib poured in 26 while grabbing 14 rebounds, while Dickerson added 24, including four three-pointers.
Mohamed Adnan Hasan had 23 points and 11 boards to pace the Kuwaitis in the losing effort, while Sahou Alshammri scored 14.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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