Bahrainis claim Gulf basketball victory

TDT | Manama                             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s youth national basketball team claimed their first victory of the preliminary round yesterday in the Gulf Basketball Association (GBA) qualifiers for this year’s FIBA Asia U16 Championship, currently being held in Jeddah.

The Bahrainis battled back from behind to defeat their counterparts from Kuwait 72-54. The young nationals finally came away with a win after three tries in this stage of the competition, losing previously to Qatar and then hosts Saudi Arabia.

The Bahrainis had a slow start and trailed 14-20 at the end of the first quarter, but narrowed the gap in the second to head into the break down by just one, 31-32. They then came alive in the second half, powering ahead 50-43 after three and enjoying leads as big as the final winning margin of 18.

Hasan Jameela and Husain Alsamaheeji each scored 18 points for Bahrain in the win, while Ali Altoq contributed 15 markers. Mohammed Alshammari and Ahmed Alobaid scored 12 points apiece for the Kuwaitis in the loss.

Bahrain now await the result of the other game in the preliminaries that will determine the ranking for the semi-finals, where the top seeds will play the fourth, and the second seeds will take on the third.

Both final four games are scheduled for tomorrow as today is a rest day. The winners advance to the gold medal decider on Sunday, and at the same time book their berths to this year’s FIBA Asia U16 Championship, which will be held in Doha in September. There will also be a bronze medal contest Sunday.