Ahli win thriller over Muharraq to advance to Cup semis

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Maitham Jameel scored Al Ahli’s final nine points last night in their hard-fought 81-79 victory over bitter rivals Muharraq, to advance to the semi-finals of the 2021 Khalifa bin Salman Cup.

Jameel buried a three-pointer with just over two minutes remaining to make it 75-74 and give the tournament’s defending champions the lead for good.

Muharraq stayed in the game but after Jameel split his free throws with 11 seconds left, Mohammed Kuwayed missed a pair on the other end with three ticks on the game clock which could have tied the proceedings.

Following the result, Ahli moves on to the final four where they will take on the winner of the quarter-final match-up between Al Najma and Sitra.

Four players registered more than 20 points for Najma in yesterday’s other game, which they won 140-115 in a high-scoring affair against Al Ettihad.

The contest was a preliminary round fixture and Najma advance to the last eight. In Ahli’s nail-biting victory, both teams were neck and neck as they headed towards the game’s final minutes.

Back-to-back Kuwayed triples broke a 61-all deadlock with seven minutes to go and that appeared to be the much-needed decisive spark for Muharraq.

But Ahli never gave up and crawled back to tie it at 69-all on a Jameel triple. Muharraq then scored the next five points with baskets from Mohammed Juma’a and American import Chris Johnson, but Ahli’s game-changing reply included back-to-back triples from Hesham Sarhan and Jameel, which was the go-ahead basket.

Jameel finished with 18 points while playing all 40 minutes in the game. Professional James Mays paced the victors with 29 while also taking down 15 rebounds. Sarhan chipped in with 14.

For Muharraq, Johnson had 21 points, 20 rebounds and five assists in the loss. Juma’a added 18 to go with nine rebounds, while Kuwayed had 15 and Bader Abdulla Malabes 11.

Meanwhile, in Najma’s win, they poured in 39 points in the second quarter alone to turn a 27-31 deficit at the end of the first to a 66-54 lead at the half.

They continued their rampant pace in the final 20 minutes of action and led by as many as 34 points en route to closing out the big win.

Ali Jaffar had a fine performance, top-scoring for the victors with 30 points, which included six three-pointers. He also dished out 12 assists and had six rebounds and three steals.

Big man CJ Giles had just as big an impact.

He finished with 26 points, 23 rebounds, five assists and four blocks in an all-around effort.

Captain Fadalallah Abbas added 21 to go with eight assists, while Abdulla Mohammed had 20 off the bench.

For Ettihad, Sayed Hadi Mohammed scored 32 points, all but two of which came from beyond the three-point line in an impressive outside shooting display.

Hassan Albossta added 23, while Hashem Alwadaie nearly contributed a triple-double with 18 points, eight rebounds and nine assists.