BAHRAINSPORTS
DECEMBER 2013
STEALING THE BALL
Al Hala’s Ahmed Mirza tries to
strip the ball from the hands of
Jordanian hosts ASU player.
Al Hakam Abd Allah led Jaish with
18 points in the losing effort. Anas
Shaban and Ahmad Kazha contributed
13 apiece.
With the result, Hala bounced back
from their opening game defeat to ASU
of Jordan and now will be looking to
make a winning start to the competition’s preliminary round when they face
off with tournament favourites Foolad
Mahan of Iran in their next game today.
“We went into the game with a lot of
confidence having scored 80 points in
our previous game against ASU,” Hala’s
American head coach Matthew Skillman
was quoted as saying after their win.
We had lost that game but having
scored so many points against such
tough opponents gave us confidence.
“We only had four assists the other
night, but tonight we had 19. That sums
up the story of our win.”
Hala took some time to get into their
groove yesterday as Jaish were the first
to have control of the contest. The Syrians used their superior height advantage to claim a 24-21 lead at the end of
the first quarter.
Hala, however, quickly turned things
around in the second and they powered
into the lead by the half, 48-46.
A stellar third quarter saw the
Bahraini outfit extend their advantage to
seven, 57-50, heading into the final canto, paving the way for Jawadi’s finishing
flurry of baskets en route to securing
the all-important victory for his team.
Hala enjoyed a lead as big as 20 in
the game.
Amongst the victors’ other scores,
Ahmed Ali and Ali Shukhrallah both
finished with nine points apiece for Hala,
“We went into
the game with a
lot of confidence
having scored
80 points in our
previous game
against ASU ...
We had lost that
game but having
scored so many
points against
such tough rivals
gave us confidence.”
– MATTHEW SKILLMAN
AL HALA HEAD COACH
while Hussain Salman had eight, and
Ahmed Mirza and Ali Abbas each
scoring five.
Hala are playing in the Fiba Asia
Champions Cup for the first time.
Bahrain have not been represented in the Fiba Asia Champions Cup
for several years. The last time was in
2008 when the tournament was held
in Kuwait and Muharraq were flying
the kingdom’s flag.
Muharraq made it through to
the quarter-final stage before being
eliminated. THE GAME
sports magazine t h e g a m e
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