Muharraq edge past Kuwaitis in thriller

TDT | Manama                                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Muharraq maintained their winning ways last night in the 2023/2024 FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL), defeating Kuwait Sports Club 101-96 at Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex in Kuwait City.

After trailing by 11 points in the first half, the Bahrainis came alive in the final two quarters and staved off a late surge from the Kuwaitis to register their third successive victory in Group A of the FIBA WASL Gulf sub-zone.

Muharraq avenged their only setback of the competition so far against Kuwait—a 92-108 home defeat in November of last year.

Muharraq recovered with backto-back wins against Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia and Al Rayyan of Qatar prior to their first FIBA WASL fixture of the new year yesterday.

Muharraq are one of two Bahraini clubs in this season’s tournament. Manama are the other.

They are in Group B of the Gulf sub-zone, and they are the defending champions.

Bader Abdulla Malabes was red-hot in last night’s contest, scoring a game-high 35 points, including five three-pointers, to spearhead the Bahrainis.

Mohammed Juma’a added 25 points and eight rebounds, while American professional Tyler Wilkerson had an impressive double-double with 18 points and 16 boards.

Ali Jaffar chipped in with 15 for Muharraq, who also had five points and nine assists from court general Hussain Salman.

For Kuwait, who suffered their first loss of this FIBA WASL campaign, Cody Lalanne had 28 points and nine rebounds.

Tony Carr added 16 and eight assists, while Mohammad Hasan finished with 14 points and 11 boards.

Outscored

Muharraq led 26-22 at the end of the first quarter but a subpar second, where they were outscored by 12, saw them fall behind 43-51 at the half.

They roared back in the third, scoring 30 points to forge a 30-all tie heading into the last stanza.

There, they led by as many as nine but Kuwait made a final surge, getting to within a single point with 14 seconds remaining.

But Salman and Malabes sank four straight charity shots to help ice the win for the Bahrainis.

Muharraq are scheduled to return to FIBA WASL action against Ahli in Jeddah on 30 January, and then they complete this stage against Rayyan at home on 12 February.

The competition format for the second season of the FIBA WASL remains the same as the inaugural campaign.

The three best teams at the end of the WASL Gulf sub-zone and the WASL West Asia sub-zone earn their tickets to the WASL Final Eight.

There, they will be joined by the champion teams from South Asia and Central Asia, and they will all vie for the right to become cage kings of the region.

Prior to the Final Eight, in each sub-zone, the top seeds at the end of the double round-robin qualify directly to the best-of-three semi-finals.

The second and third-ranked teams will play for the other final four berths, also in a bestof-three.