Muharraq edge past battling Najma

TDT | Manama                 

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com 

Muharraq staved off a late rally by Al Najma to come away with an 87-82 win last night in their week eight meeting in the 2022/2023 Zain Bahrain Basketball League.

Muharraq were in control for much of the contest and led by as many as 22 points, but Najma were able to reduce the deficit to just three multiple times in the final canto.

Muharraq, however, were able to answer each time and hold on to the lead until the game-ending buzzer.

Tony Rasean and Baqer Isa combined for 48 points to spearhead Muharraq in the game.

Hussain Salman and Ali Jaffar added 15 apiece, while Ali Shukrallah had just five points but took down 14 rebounds in the win.

Nick Ward had 29 for Najma as the game’s leading scorer.

Ali Jaber chipped in with 15 and Mohammed Hussain had 13 in their narrow loss.

Muharraq took a 27-19 lead at the end of the first period, and then extended their advantage to 57-37 at the half.

Najma did well to close the gap in the third period, holding Muharraq to just eight points the entire quarter to march into the final canto down a manageable 56-65.

In the fourth, Najma continued to chip away at Muharraq’s lead and got to within three points, 63-66, following reverse dunk by Ward.

Muharraq then answered with a 13-2 run to build another double-digit lead, but Najma stayed within striking distance and made it 80-83.

Isa then took advantage of a defensive blunder by Najma and scored with an uncontested basket in the paint to put them back up by five with only 20 seconds left, and they managed to remain in front from there.

With the result, Muharraq claimed their fourth win in five contests and improved to nine points on the league standings.

They have played the least number of games so far on the league schedule.

For Najma, they dropped their fourth game in six tries and stayed on eight points, tied with three others on bottom half of the table.

League action continues later this week with the ninth week of action.

On Thursday, Al Hala and Isa Town clash at 5.30pm followed by a mammoth contest between defending league champions Manama and Muharraq at 7.30pm.

Those games will be followed on Friday by Najma taking on Sitra in the early fixture and then Bahrain Club facing Samaheej in the late game.

Week nine concludes on Saturday with Nuwaidrat taking on Al Ettihad in the evening’s lone fixture, scheduled for a 7.30pm start.