Manama book Golden Square berth

TDT | Manama                                                         

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Defending champions Manama booked their place in the Golden Square semi-finals of the 2022/2023 Zain Bahrain Basketball League last night.

Manama edged past Bahrain Club 85-82 in game two of their best-of-three playoff series to complete a two-game sweep of the match-up.

The victors now move on to the last four, where they will take on arch-rivals Al Ahli, also in a best-of-three. Travin Thiboadaux top scored for Manama with 20 points while also grabbing 17 rebounds and dishing out seven assists.

Lamont Jones added 18 and seven assists in the win, while Mohammed Ameer scored 17. Hasan Nowrooz came off the bench to contribute 13 for Manama. Bahrain Club were paced by Ali Abbas and Tony Mitchell, who combined for 51 of their total output.

Abbas was their leading scorer with 26. It was a close game throughout, with neither team leading by more than single digits. Bahrain Club held a slim 21-19 advantage at the end of the first quarter, but Manama tied it at 43-apiece at the half.

They went up 63-60 with only the final canto remaining, and there, Jones made two free-throws with less than a minute to go to break a 78-all deadlock and give Manama the lead for good. Ahmed Salman iced the game, also from the charity stripe, with four seconds left, and Sadiq Shukrallah missed a potential tying basket at the final buzzer.

Manama’s semi-final against Ahli has yet to be scheduled. The other match-up between Muharraq and Al Ettihad will get underway with game one on May 8. Game two is scheduled for May 11, and then game three, if needed, will be on May 14. Muharraq and Ahli gained automatic berths in the semis as the top two seeds from the regular season.