TDT | Manama
Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bahrain’s Muharraq Club achieved their first win in the 2023/2024 FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) last night. Muharraq defeated Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahly 94-80 at Zain Basketball Arena in Umm Al Hassam.
Bahrain outscored their opponents 22-8 in the final quarter and showed a ferocious drive to close out the match and claim the victory. The result follows Muharraq’s 92-108 loss to Kuwait Sporting Club of Kuwait in their opening game earlier this month.
They will make their WASL debut this season, joining fellow Bahraini club and WASL defending champions Manama in the WASL Gulf subzone.
Muharraq are in Group A of the Gulf Qualifiers along with Ahli, Kuwait and Al Rayyan (Qatar). Manama are in Group B, which includes Kazma (Kuwait), Shabab Al Ahly (UAE) and Al Shamal (Qatar). Muharraq will return to action against Rayan in Doha on December 12th, and will face Kuwait in Kuwait City on January 8th next year.
The penultimate assignment of this stage will be on January 30th in Jeddah against Ahly, before returning home to Bahrain and concluding with a match against Rayan.
In last night’s win, Muharraq took a narrow 24-23 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Ahly’s Keith Hollis Thompson II scored on a jumper with 38 seconds left in the second quarter, making it 45-43 at halftime. he led.
The game remained close in the third, with Ali Jafar’s 3-pointer off an assist from Hussein Salman, and the score tied again at 72-all with one last cant remaining.
So, after allowing the first basket of the period, Muharraq went on a game-changing 8-0 run, scored by America’s Tyler Wilkerson, and capped by a layup by Bader Abdullah Malabez.
Ahly fought back to a three-point lead at 77-80, but then Muharraq closed out the game with a 14-3 spurt for the all-important victory.
Marabeth had a team-high 22 points, including four 3-pointers, and six assists, while Wilkerson contributed 21 points and 14 rebounds. Mohamed Jumaa added 18 points and Mohamed Hussein 17 for Bahrain.
Devin Maurice Ebanks was Ahri’s leading scorer with 21 points, followed by Marzouk Almwalad with 17 points.
It was Saudi Arabia’s second consecutive loss in Group A.
The final top three teams from the WASL Gulf Subzone League and WASL West Asia Subzone League will earn a ticket to this season’s WASL Final 8.
These six teams will be joined by champion teams from South Asia and Central Asia, vying for the right to be the cage kings of the region.
Prior to the Final 8, each sub-zone league will be split into two groups of four teams, with the top seed at the end of the round-robin phase qualifying directly for the best-of-three WASL semi-finals.