BASKETBALL – Bahrain powered past Kuwait 89-74 last night but they came up just short of securing the bronze medals in the 26th Arab Men’s Basketball Championship 2025, which came to a close in the kingdom.
Mustafa Hussain scored 21 points to spearhead the hosts to their third victory in six games to wrap up their participation in the seven-nation tournament, organised by the Arab Basketball Confederation (ABC) in collaboration with the Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA).
The result helped the nationals draw level with the UAE on 3-3 win-loss records on the final standings, but with the Emiratis winning their head-to-head – a last-second 81-79 outcome in both teams’ second fixtures of the competition – they owned the tie-break.
The UAE thus climbed the podium as bronze-medallists alongside gold medal winners Algeria and silver-medallists Tunisia. Bahrain finished fourth, while Qatar, Egypt, and winless Kuwait completed the final rankings in fifth through seventh, respectively.
In attendance to hand out the awards in last night’s closing ceremony and prize presentation were Bahrain Olympic Committee vice-president Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, General Sports Authority CEO Dr Abdulrahman Askar, former BBA president Captain Waleed Al Alawi, ABC president and UAE Basketball Association president Ismail Al Gergawi, and other BBA and ABC officials.
Algeria skipper Briki Sofiane accepted the champions’ trophy from Shaikh Isa on behalf of their team.
A number of individual awards were also given. Bahrain’s JaKarr Sampson won the Most Valuable Player award, while Hussain won the Best Three-Point Shooter award. Demarco Dickerson of the UAE took home the Best Scorer trophy.
In Bahrain’s win last night, they pulled away in the last two quarters where they turned a slim 38-36 edge at the break to leading by as many as 20 points with just over a minute to play following an Ahmed Salman three-pointer.
The Kuwaitis were briefly in front by just two points right before the half, but the nationals regained control after the re-start.
Ahmed Bindayneh chipped in with 16 points for the Bahrainis while Salman had 12 and Mohammed Ameer 10. Abdulrahman Al Shammari scored 28 to pace Kuwait, while Abdulaziz Alhamidi had 18 in their loss.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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