Al Sadd beat UAE’s Al Wasl to win GCC clubs title

QOC secretary-general and QBA president Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani presents the winners’ trophy to Al Sadd captain Erfan Ali Saeed  as Abdulrahman Sadd (L) applauds at the Aspire Women’s Gym yesterday. At right, Al Sadd coach Koussay Hatem racts during the match. At bottom, the Al Sadd team posing with officials after the final. Pictures: Anas KhalidBy Sports Reporter/DohaAl Sadd won the GCC Club Championship with a convincing 79-70 win over the UAE’s Al Sadd in Doha yesterday.At the Aspire Women’s Gym, Osaro Adko scord 21 points while Seeed Erfan Ali and Sulaiman Abdi chipped in with 19 and 17 respectively as Al Sadd overcame the disappointment of missing out on some domestic silverware this season by clinching the prestigious regional title.“It was a great win for us, the boys excelled throughout the tournament and emerged deserving winners,” said Al Sadd coach Koussay Hatem.Al Sadd went trophy-less this season in Qatar as Al Gharafa swept the League, the Qatar Cup as well as the Emir Cup, but yesterday’s win came as a morale-booster.“The fact we beat the top teams in the GCC means a lot to the team. The domestic defeats hurt, but we can now build on our GCC success and prepare for the future,” added Hatem.Al Sadd kept scoring at crucial moments and except for a brief spell in the third quarter were never under pressure. They had shot to a 21-11 lead at the end of the first quarter and more or less maintained a similar tempo throughout the match, eventually winning by nine points.At the end of the second quarter, the home side were ahead 37-28 but Al Wasl hit a brief purple patch and at one stage were within two points of Al Sadd (39-37) with six and a half minutes to go. But Ali converted two free-throws and Leslie Chauncey scored from the three-point mark to help Al Sadd extend their lead by eight at the end of the third quarter (50-42).With time running out, Al Wasl made a poor start in the final quarter when Redwan Sulaiman missed two free-throws, and although they closed the gap to 50-47, Ali produced a brilliant dribbling effort to take the score to 52-47.Al Sadd led 56-50 with six and a half minutes to go and scored eight more points while keeping Al Wasl scoreless in that period. With two and a half minutes remaining, Al Sadd had a healthy 11-point lead thanks to a fine three-pointer by Abdi, who repeated the feat a few moments later to keep his time comfortably ahead at 72-63 with one and a half minutes to go.Al Wasl faced a tall order to overcome a nine point deficit in the remaining time and although they tried their best, two crucial free-throws by Moosa took the match in the final seconds took the match away from them.Al Wasl’s Mario Kasun was the top-scorer for either side with 29 points, while Redhouana Simario has 16 and Nasser al-Zaabi had 13.Meanwhile, Al Kuwait defeated Al Ahli of UAE 97-66 to finish third in the tournament, with Hamad Hassan top-scoring with 17 for the winners.Fahed al-Dhofairi and Jasmin Perkovic scored 14 each for Al Kuwait, while Abdulla al-Shammari and Abdulrahman al-Dumah had 10 each.