Manama suffer big loss to Kuwait

TDT | Manama                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Bahrain league champions Manama were handed a disappointing 78-106 loss to Kuwait SC last night in their penultimate game of the Gulf sub-zone in the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL).

The WASL is a new basketball competition sanctioned by FIBA, the sport’s global governing body.

Manama are one of 16 teams in the inaugural edition.

Manama got off to a slow start and faced a 17-28 deficit at the end of the first quarter, which turned to 37-50 at the half.

In the third, however, the Kuwaitis outscored them thoroughly 30-11, and Manama never recovered from there. Kuwait enjoyed leads as big as 35 points.

Steve Taylor Jr had 24 points and Lamont Jones added 22 as Manama’s only players in double figures.

For Kuwait, Jacob Pullen had 24 and Marcus Anthony Georges-Hunt contributed 23 while four others had 11 points or more.

With the result, Manama suffered their second loss in five games on the Group B standings in the Gulf sub-zone.

They remained in second place behind Kuwait.

The other teams in their pool are Al Sadd of Qatar and Al Nasr Riyadh of Saudi Arabia.

Group A in the Gulf sub-zone comprises Al Hilal of Saudi, Shabab Al Ahli of the UAE, Al Basheer Club of Oman and Kazma SC of Kuwait.

Manama play one more game in this stage.

It will be on Tuesday next week against Sadd.

Following this phase of the WASL competition, the top team from each group will advance to the semi-finals, while the second and third will face-off in qualification to determine the semi-final match-ups.

Eventually, the top three teams from the WASL Gulf sub-zone will qualify—along with the WASL West Asia sub zone—for the WASL Final 8, where they will be joined by Champions of South Asia and Central Asia.

The WASL Final 8 will qualify for FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2023, on the road to FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2023, FIBA’s highest club competition.