Muharraq barge into quarter-finals

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Muharraq edged past Dynamo from Lebanon 83-79 yesterday to barge into the quarter-finals of the 35th Arab Clubs Basketball Championship, currently being held in Doha, Qatar.

Australian-South Sudanese import Deng Acouth had a goahead slam dunk off a Bader Abdulla Malabes drive-and-dish to break a 79-all deadlock and give the Bahrainis a slim twopoint advantage with just 38.7 seconds left.

Dynamo then tried to take the lead or tie on their ensuing possession but misfired on all four of their attempts, which led to an uncontested Malabes lay-up on a fast-break to peg the final score at the final buzzer.

It was a tight ending despite Muharraq having the lead for much of the contest.

Dynamo made a furious rally in the last five minutes and a Radwan Slimane three-point play levelled the scores with 57.4 seconds remaining on the game clock, but that set the stage for Acouth’s crucial basket.

Muharraq now move on to the round of eight where they will face off with AS Sale of Morocco.

AS Sale defeated fellow-Moroccan outfit MTB Majd Tanja 88-75 in another round-of-16 elimination game yesterday.

The Muharraq-AS Sale clash will take place today at 3.30pm, Bahrain time. American professional Julius Coles Jr was Muharraq’s top scorer yesterday with 28 points.

Acouth added 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Malabes contributed 19 markers, which included five three-pointers.

Ali Habib had nine points while Mohammed Nasser Juma’a scored seven for the Bahrainis. For Dynamo, Zachary Lofton paced their team with 32 points, while Slimane scored 21.

In Muharraq’s victory yesterday, they had a strong start and quickly built a double-digit lead, going ahead 25-14 at the end of the first quarter.

The Bahrainis continued their fine form in the second and built their biggest gap of 14 before going up 45-37 at the half.

Muharraq stayed in front 64- 56 after three, and then in the final canto managed just enough to stave off Dynamo’s end-game push and march through to the next stage.

With yesterday’s result, Muharraq have now won three games in a row in the tournament.

They had opened their campaign with a loss to defending champions Kuwait Sports Club, but then had back-to-back wins against Bureij Services of Palestine and Qatar Sports Club to set up their meeting with Dynamo.

The tournament is being held under the auspices of the Arab Basketball Confederation. Muharraq are looking to become the first-ever Bahraini team to win the tournament title.