Muharraq power past Palestine’s Bureij

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Muharraq Club cruised to their first victory yesterday in the 35th Arab Clubs Basketball Championship, currently taking place in Doha, Qatar.

The Kingdom’s representatives outclassed Bureij Services of Palestine110-86 in their Group A contest.

Muharraq were able to bounce back from their 61-82 loss to Kuwait Sports Club of Kuwait in their previous fixture.

The Bahrainis have one game to play in the competition’s preliminary stage.

It will be tomorrow at 7pm, Bahrain time, against Qatar Sports Club of Qatar.

There are 18 teams from across the region taking part in the event, divided into four groups for this phase.

Following a single round-robin, the top four in each move on to the round of 16, with the matchups based on their seedings.

In yesterday’s win, Muharraq had a strong start and registered the game’s first 13 points as they held their opponents scoreless for the opening three minutes.

They were in command 29-13 at the end of the first period and enjoyed a 58-32 advantage at the interval.

The Bahrainis made it 85- 57 heading into the final canto, where they closed strong for the final result.

American professional Julius Coles Jr scored 22 points while Mohammed Nasser added 21 to spearhead Muharraq in the win.

Bader Abdulla Malabes chipped in with 18 while Australian-South Sudanese Deng Acouth had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the win.

For Bureij, Abdelrahman Abdelhaleem was their top scorer with 26 while Elias Youssef added 20.

The tournament is being held under the auspices of the Arab Basketball Confederation.

Group B features Al Ittihad Alexandria of Egypt, Union Sportive Medina d’Alger of Algeria, Al Ahly Doha from Qatar and Dynamo Lebanon from Lebanon.

Group C includes Sanaa from Yemen, AS Sale from Morocco, Al Qadsiya from Kuwait and Al Fateh from Saudi Arabia.

Group D comprises Al Ittihad from Libya, Al Ahly of Egypt, Dijlah University from Iraq, MTB Majd Tanja from Morocco and Beirut First Club from Lebanon.

Muharraq are looking to become the first-ever Bahraini team to win the tournament title.