BASKETBALL – Bahrain's Al Ahli last night booked their place in the play-offs for a berth in the Gulf sub-zone semi-finals of the 2024-25 Fiba West Asia Super League (WASL).
Ahli qualified for this stage after routing Al Bashaer Club of Oman 87-67 in their concluding Group A game of the Gulf competition’s preliminary round, played at Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) Arena in Um Al Hassam.
They finished this stage with a 2-4 win-loss record for third place on the table, and they now move on with second-ranked Kuwait SC of Kuwait to the play-offs, which will be played in crossover format with two teams from Group B. These match-ups will determine the last two spots in the Gulf final four.
Shabab Al Ahli of the UAE booked an outright berth in the semis after topping Group A. They defeated Kuwait 90-83 in yesterday’s other divisional fixture.
Both teams finished with identical 4-1 records in the standings, but the Emiratis took first place based on the competition’s tie-break rules.
Bashaer ended their WASL campaign with a winless record in six games and are out of further contention.
Kuwait and Ahli now await today’s results in Group B, which will determine the final ranking, with the top team advancing directly to the Gulf semi-finals and the next two playing in the play-offs.
Al Qadsia of Kuwait are currently in first place but are tied with Bahrain champions Manama on 3-2 marks. Ittihad Club of Saudi Arabia and Al Arabi of Qatar are third and fourth, respectively, but both are on 2-3 records.
Manama host Ittihad at 7.30pm this evening at the BBA Arena, while Qadsia welcome Arabi to Kuwait City in their clash at 7pm, Bahrain time.
In last night’s fixture, Ahli took a big lead early and never looked back. They went ahead 22-11 at the end of the first quarter and then stretched their advantage to 46-28 at the half. They maintained their strong play after the break and were up 63-41 at the end of the third, and then enjoyed their biggest lead of the night of 29 points on two occasions early in the fourth.
Bashaer never led in the contest.
Elijah Reshard Thomas and Ahmed Alderazi combined for more than half of Ahli’s output with 49 points between them. Thomas had a monster effort of 29 points and 18 rebounds while Alderazi added 20, including five three-pointers, while also dishing out five assists.
Maitham Jameel and Hesham Sarhan added 13 apiece as Ahli’s two other players in double figures.
For Bashaer, Slaven Cupkovic finished as their leading scorer with 31 points, while Said Al Saadi contributed 16 and Mazin Al Hadidi 11 in the loss.
The crossover semi-finals will be played in best-of-three format, as will the Gulf semi-finals.
The top three teams from the WASL’s Gulf sub-zone, as well as from the WASL West Asia sub-zone, will qualify for the FIBA WASL Final Eight, where they will be joined by the champions of South and Central Asia.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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