Al Ahli force rubber match

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Al Ahli forced a winner-take-all third game against Manama last night in their best-of-three Golden Square semi-final series in the 2022/2023 Khalifa bin Salman Cup basketball tournament.

Ahli ensured the decisive rubber match after defeating their arch-rivals 81-68 yesterday in game two, played at a rocking Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town.

Ahli held Manama scoreless in the final six-and-a-half minutes of the contest en route to securing their crucial victory.

Manama had earlier narrowly won game one 90-88 but Ahli were able to stay alive last night.

Game three is scheduled to take place on Friday next week at the same venue. The winner of the Ahli-Manama series will take on the victor from the tournament’s other Golden Square match-up between Muharraq and Sitra.

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

If needed, a third game will be held on Wednesday next week.

Seven - foot American import Dakari Johnson was a force for Ahli last night, spearheading his team with 32 points and 19 rebounds, although committing eight turnovers. American-Montenegrin professional Taylor Rochestie added 23 in the win, including four three-pointers.

Maitham Jameel was Ahli’s only other player in double figures with 10 points, while Hesham Sarhan and Subah Hussain added five apiece. Lamont Jones from the US paced Manama with 23 points in the loss.

Travin Thibodeaux finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Mohammed Ameer had nine a n d Hasan Nowrooz six points.

Ahli led for most of the first half but a Mustafa Hussain three-pointer in transition with just under three minutes to go before the break gave Manama a 38-35 lead.

But just before the interval, Rochestie stole the ball on an inbounds and made a baseline three-pointer to beat the half-time buzzer and give Ahli a slim 44-42 edge heading into the locker rooms.

In the third, Ahli maintained their advantage and a Rochestie triple made it 55-48.

Thibodeaux then buried his own basket from beyond the arc at the quarter buzzer to cut Manama’s deficit to 60-64 with only the final canto to play.

There, Ahli never wavered and a Rochestie basket gave them a 71-62 lead.

Back-to-back Nowrooz triples brought Manama back to within 68-71 with six-and-a-half minutes on the clock, but that turned out to be Manama’s last baskets in the contest as Ahli closed the game out with a stunning 10-0 run.

Ahli’s final winning margin of 13 was also their biggest lead of the game.