BASKETBALL – Bahrain’s Manama suffered a tough 69-91 loss against Sagesse of Lebanon last night in their opening game of the 38th Arab Basketball Championship for Men’s Clubs, which is currently being played in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
The kingdom’s representatives in the 12-team event put in a valiant effort but were overmatched in their Group A contest.
Manama are fielding a young and inexperienced squad in the senior men’s tournament and are missing two key veteran players due to injury, namely versatile wings Ali Jaber and Mohammed Buallay.
They have signed American Isaiah Kelly to help bolster their roster, but the home team were too good on the night.
Manama will be looking to bounce back from the setback today when they face Al Rayyan of Qatar at 7pm.
They then take on Al Ittihad Ahli of Aleppo from Syria on Tuesday at 2pm, before locking horns with Seeb from Oman for their penultimate fixture of this stage on Wednesday at 7pm.
Manama complete the preliminaries on Friday against Club Centrale Al Markaziyyah Jounieh of Lebanon at 4.30pm.
All times are Bahrain.
The Bahrainis will be hoping to be amongst the top four teams in their division to earn a ticket to the quarter-finals.
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