Kuwait Club moved one win away from successfully defending their crown following an 86-74 victory over Manama in the Fiba WASL-Gulf League Season 2 Final opener last night at the Khalifa Sport City in Isa Town.
The reigning sub-zone champions pulled away for good in the final chapter towards the 1-0 lead in the best-of-three affair, giving themselves the opportunity to close it out and secure a back-to-back in Game 2 on Monday, in their home floor in Kuwait City.
Marcus Georges-Hunt led the way with 20 points, 17 of which he made in the first quarter that saw him shoot three triples as he powered their strong 27-16 start.
Tony Carr finished with 15 points, with 13 all in the second half. Cady Lalanne came through with yet another double-double as he registered 14 points and 10 rebounds. Veteran playmaker Turki Alshemmari also made 14 points as he shot 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Kuwait Club saw their hot start get to waste when Manama took the lead twice in the third quarter behind the efforts of Mohamed Ameer and Ahmed Haji.
Game was tied at 53-all with 3:04 left in the said period but Hamad Hasan nailed a corner triple to break the deadlock. That long shot ignited a 10-1 run for the visiting side to finish the chapter in their favor, 63-54, and they would never trail all the way to the end.
In their head-to-head matchups since the Fiba WASL inaugurals, Kuwait Club have now won against Manama for the fifth time in six outings.
Manama head coach Linos Gavriel said: “Congratulations to the team of Kuwait. I want to apologise to our fans for our performance. It wasn’t about losing, tonight was about the performance. Probably one of our worst games on both ends of the floor. This is something that definitely will not happen as long as I’m the coach of the team.”
Kuwait Club’s Georges-Hunt said: “Great atmosphere. We knew coming in here that Bahrain is always gonna be ecstatic. Real competitive team. I was glad that our guys stepped up to the game plan ... we locked in and we made a lot of big stops, and we stuck together in this hostile environment. It’s not over yet. We have to play in front of our fans. It should be a good one.”
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