Sadd score close win for finals spot against Wasl

Al Ahli’s Mohamed al-Ajmani (right) tries to defend against an Al Sadd player during their GCC Clubs Championship basketball semi-final yesterday.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

The win means Sadd will face yet another UAE team, Al Wasl in the final.

Sadd almost blew away their 10-point lead at 60-50 in the last five minutes yesterday and managed to hold a hairline one-point lead as the hooter blew. The Emirati team scored 12 points to Sadd’s three in the last five minutes.

For Ahli, Sheikh Tidiane Samb (28 points) and Sean Marshall (16) combined well to score 44 points in the match between them, and the two got their team threateningly close to a finals spot.

Emmanuel Adako (24 points) was the top-scorer for Sadd with Khalid Abdi pitching in with 18 points. Daoud Mousa added 11 points.

In the first semi-final, UAE’s Al Wasl downed Al Kuwait 87-81 to make it to the final. With a two-point deficit at 73-71 going into the five minutes of the game, Kuwait had a chance but Wasl steadily dunked in points for six-point win.

Silmario Redhouana (24 points) and Rashed Naser al-Zaabi (23) scored 47 points between themselves to give Wasl an edge in the semi-final. The others to get into double digits were Mario Kasun and Ahmad Ibrahim Abdulla with 18 and 17 points respectively.

For Kuwait, Marko Milic led well with 23 points to his name. Even as he got some able support from Rashed al-Rabah (16 points), Jasmin Perkovic (13) and Ahmad al-Mutairi (13), Kuwait found themselves short in the end.

Yesterday’s earlier matches were played to determine the teams placed fifth to eighth in the tournament.

In one of these matches, Al Rayyan beat Oman’s Nazwa by a narrow five-point margin 66-61, while Bahrain Al Manama swept aside the challenge by Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad 73-48.

Despite an impressive performance by Batless Malkum Malik, who was the top-scorer in the match, Nazwa were faced with a resilient Rayyan who managed to keep their calm in the fourth quarter.

For Rayyan, Boney Watson top-scored with 16 points, while Jurica Zuza scored 12. Mohamed pitched in with 10 points.

Watson dunked in three two-pointers, two three-pointers and had four free-throws.