Manama complete sweep of FIBA West Asia Super League group

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Title holders Manama completed a clean sweep of their preliminary round campaign last night in the Gulf sub-zone of the 2023/2024 FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL).

The first-ever winners of the regional competition edged past Shabab Al Ahli Dubai of the UAE 78-74 in their concluding Group B fixture, played at Zain Basketball Arena in Um Al Hassam.

The result earned the Bahrainis their sixth victory in as many outings as they sent out a stern warning to the rest of the FIBA WASL field.

Manama are already through to the Gulf semi-finals, having secured first place on their pool standings even before their game last night against the Emiratis.

The Bahrainis now await their opponents in the last four, where Kuwait SC of Kuwait have also already secured their spot as winners from Group A.

There are two Gulf groups in the FIBA WASL preliminaries, and the top teams of each advance directly to the zonal semis, while the second and third seeds will face off for the other two spots in a pair of best-of-three play-off series.

Bahrain’s other team in this year’s FIBA WASL, Muharraq, are in the play-offs.

They finished as Group A runners-up, and will play the third seeds from Group B, who will be either Shabab or Kazma of Kuwait.

The victors from the two play-offs will march on to the semi-finals.

In yesterday’s contest, a Travin Thibodeaux threepoint play with just over five minutes remaining broke a 60-all deadlock and put Manama in front for good.

The Emiratis tried to stay close, and a Chavaughn Lewis steal and fast-break dunk, plus the foul, made it 74-75 with 19.3 seconds left.

But after Sir ’Dominic Pointer made one of two freethrows, and then Lewis turned the ball over as he charged down the sideline.

Ahmed Salman then pegged the final score with two charity shots and only seconds on the clock.

Salman spearheaded a balanced Manama attack that saw six of their players finish in double figures.

Salman had 15 points, while Pointer contributed 13 and 12 rebounds.

Cameron Clark scored 12, Thibodeaux 11 and both Mohammed Ameer and Hassan Nowrooz had 10 points.

For Shabab, Nicolas Minnerath scored 26 and Lewis finished with 22, as they wrapped up their Group B schedule with a 3-3 win-loss record.