Manama through to gold medal game!

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain’s Manama Club moved one win away yesterday from an historic achievement in international basketball.

The Kingdom’s most decorated basketball club and defending national league champions last night punched their tickets to the gold medal game of the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) Final Eight, currently being held in Dubai.

The Bahrainis booked their seats following a 91-81 victory over BC Astana of Kazakhstan in their semi-final clash, played at Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Sports Hall.

Manama used a strong second-half performance to turn a slim, one-point lead at the interval to an advantage of as many as 15 points in the second half.

Astana then cut the deficit to just six late in the final canto, but Manama were able to hold on for the victory.

The Bahrainis will now play for the tournament’s inaugural title against the winner of the other final four encounter between Al Riyadi of Lebanon and Kuwait SC of Kuwait, which was played late last night.

The gold medal contest is scheduled for a 5.45pm tip-off this evening, Bahrain time.

The losing semi-finalists will play for the bronze medals at 3pm, Bahrain time. Mustafa Hussain top scored for Manama with 23 points against the Kazakhs, including four three-pointers, while dishing out five assists and committing zero turnovers.

American professional Sir’Dominic Pointer added 20, while Jeremy Deshawn Evans chipped in with 17 and 11 rebounds.

Travin Thibodeaux finished with 12 and Ahmed Salman had 11 for Manama in the win. Markell Davon Johnson paced Astana with 29 points while Rustam Murzagaliyev had 12 as their only players in double figures.

In their triumph last night, Manama trailed 22-26 at the end of the first quarter but bounced back in the second to take the 45-44 advantage heading into the half.

In the third, the Bahrainis took control by outscoring their opponents 25-14 to go ahead 70- 58 after three periods.

In the final canto, they did well to maintain their advantage but Astana tried to mount one final comeback late on, cutting Manama’s lead to 82-76 with a Murzagaliyev three-pointer and three minutes to go.

Manama, however, were able to reply with free-throws from Thibodeaux, and a triple by Pointer that made it 87-76 virtually iced the win with two minutes to go.

In this maiden edition of the competition, the WASL Final Eight also acts as a qualifier for FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2023, on the road to FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2023, FIBA’s highest club competition.