Manama draw first blood against Ahli

TDT | Manama                                                         

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Manama drew first blood last night in their best-of-three Golden Square semi-final series in the 2022/2023 Khalifa bin Salman Cup basketball tournament.

Manama came up with the big plays late in the contest to come away with the hard-earned 90- 88 victory in the first game of the highly anticipated matchup.

Lamont Jones buried a jumper with 22 seconds to go to put Manama ahead by four, but then Dakari Johnson brought Ahli back to within two. Ahmed Salman then had two charity shots and Ali Hussain one other to put Manama up by five, 90-85, and virtually seal the victory.

Maitham Jameel pegged the final score with a triple right before the buzzer. Jones finished with 26 points while Travin Thibodeaux added 23, including four three-pointers. Mohammed Ameer chipped in with 13 and Hasan Nowrooz 11.

Taylor Rochestie paced Ahli with 27 points, including five triples, while Johnson had 22. Ahli will now be looking to close out their series in game two, scheduled for Wednesday. Game three, if needed, will be on May 12.

The other Golden Square match-up is between Muharraq and Sitra. Muharraq won the opening contest by a massive margin and are now favoured to close out the series and advance to the final with a win in game two on Friday.

If needed, a third game will be held on May 10. The other Gold Square match-up between Manama and Al Ahli gets underway tomorrow night. Game two will be on May 4 and game three, if needed on May 12.