Manama will play Kazma Club of Kuwait tonight in the third and last game of the three-match play-offs at the Zain Basketball Arena to determine which of the two teams will head into the West Asia Super League (WASL)-Gulf Region semi-finals.
The series is currently tied at 1-1 after Kazma defeated Manama 83-69 in the first game in Bahrain late last month before Manama returned the favour last week by winning a high-scoring game, 100-90, in Kuwait.
Bahrain’s frontline – Mohammed Hamooda, Travin Thibodeaux and Elijah Robinson – came good when they were required as they put the Kuwait defence under pressure repeatedly.
And the wingers did the same to Kazma’s highly-rated Shane Rector, forcing him to commit 10 turnovers (TOs) – the most number of TOs in a WASL game.
Power forward Hamooda, forward Robinson and point guard Ahmed Haji excelled for Manama in that game with 57 points between them (Hamooda scored 21 while Robinson and Haji netted 18 each). The Bahraini club will be hoping they, along with Thibodeaux and point guard Lamont Jones (13 points each), will be able to replicate that performance in tonight’s winner-goes-forward encounter.
Manama will also look to the brothers Rashed, Mustafa and Ali (both guards), to produce the kind of game-changing plays they have built up a reputation for and the always dangerous point guard Ahmed Alderazi to create the match-winning opportunities he has been seen to conjure up over the past year.
Kazma, meanwhile, will be no push-overs, with Rector being an admirable foil for power forward Latavious Williams’ aggressive presence on court as well as forward Abdulaziz Alhamidi and centre Salah Mejri.
The winners of tonight’s game will take on Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, who finished on top of the four-team Group A table, in the semi-finals. Kazma were third on that list, while Manama came in second in the Group B table behind Kuwait Club – who are also already in the semi-finals.
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