Manama power into final

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Manama punched their tickets to the final of the 2022/2023 Khalifa bin Salman Cup last night, and in the process ended Al Ahli’s dominance of the competition in recent years.

Manama dug deep into their arsenal to pull off an exciting 88-81 victory over their bitter rivals in game three of their bestof-three Golden Square semi-final series, thus completing a 2-1 triumph.

Manama now move on to play Muharraq in the single-game title-decider, which has yet to be scheduled by the Bahrain Basketball Association.

Yesterday’s result ensured that there will be a new champion in the annual tournament, as Ahli had claimed the crown the past three seasons but have now been eliminated.

Both Manama and Muharraq have won once in the past, and will be gunning for their second titles.

American professional Lamont Jones had 25 points and eight assists to spearhead five Manama players in double-figure scoring.

Mohammed Ameer added 17 and Mustafa Hussain scored 16, in-cluding four three-pointers.

Travin Thibodeaux added 15 points and 13 rebounds, while Hasan Nowrooz had 13 in the win.

For Ahli, big man Dakari Johnson had 30 points and 13 rebounds.

Taylor Rochestie chipped in with 17 while Maitham Jameel had 12 in the loss. Manama powered ahead to a slim 18-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

They then traded leads with Ahli with three minutes to go in the second, but hot-shooting guard Mustafa Hussain buried back-to-back three-pointers on successive fast-breaks to give Manama a 45-37 lead heading into the half.

Fightback

Ahli fought back to begin the third quarter and five straight Subah Hussain points tied the proceed-ings at 50-apiece.

The game remained close and a three-pointer by Ahli’s Mohammed Qurban with six seconds to go in the period brought his team to within 63-64 heading into the final canto.

There, an off-balanced jumper by Lamont Jones gave Manama a 70-67 lead, and then five unan-swered points from Nowrooz and Ameer made it 75-69.

A Mustafa Hussain triple stretched Mana-ma’s advantage to 78-71, then later an Ameer basket from beyond the arc put Manama up 81-74.

Jones then virtually iced the game with a jumper that made it 87-80 with just over a minute remain-ing. Ahli tried valiantly to stay in the fight but their attempts were not falling.

Manama now move on to meet Muharraq, who advanced to the Khalifa bin Salman Cup final after sweeping Sitra in their Golden Square semi-final. Muharraq were the winners of the inaugural edition of the Khalifa bin Salman Cup in the 2016/2017 national basketball season.

Manama then claimed the title the following year, after which Riffa were triumphant. Ahli then claimed the coveted trophy the next three seasons, leading up to this year’s competition.