Kuwait Club, Gorgan clinch Semis tickets, stay unbeaten ahead of crucial tiff

DOHA (Qatar) - Contenders Kuwait Club and Shahrdary Gorgan booked the first two tickets to the Semi-Finals after acing their respective assignments in the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) Final 8 2024, Sunday night at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall.

The back-to-back West Asia finalists came away with a dominant 104-91 win over Tamil Nadu in the opening match of Day 2, while the two-time Gulf champions needed two overtime periods to get past Kazma, 99-95, in a battle between domestic rivals.

Both squads now tote identical 2-0 records and interestingly, they're bound to collide on Tuesday, May 28, at 21:00 local time. The winner will clinch the top seed in the group.

Sina Vahedi led Gorgan a game-high 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting as he was aggressive right from the get-go to banner their strong start. He also had 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block for an efficiency (EFF) of 33, earning  STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors.

Diamond Stone imposed his presence inside and finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds, along with a pair of blocks. Amir Gholizadeh supplied 13 points while Navid Rezaeifar added 11.

Star forward Arsalan Kazemi showcased his versatility once more as he finished with 8 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists, plus 1 steal in nearly 27 minutes of action.

Gorgan took control in the second period. Amirhossein Azari made sure to reward Vahedi's effort of securing an offensive board with a conversion inside, and that bucket would spark an 8-0 run - capped by a split from Stone -- for a 46-32 lead with under four minutes left.

The crew would stay ahead by double digits the rest of the way, even leading by as many as 31 points before their Indian counterparts tried to make the margin at least respectable.

Gorgan shot 56.5-percent from the floor, much of which came from the constant rim pressure led by Vahedi. They hauled down 50 rebounds and tallied 25 assists.

Meanwhile, Joe Young upped the ante and dropped 36 points, including 9 in the second OT as he took over to make sure that Kuwait Club would escape their hungry foes.

The former NBA guard scored the first 7 of a 9-0 run - highlighted by a 3-for-3 trip to the line and a bucket off a foul - to wipe out a two-point deficit and make it a 97-92 lead with 1:26 left to play. Free throws by Yousif Alhamdan with 15.1 seconds left sealed the deal.

Young, who produced 30 points against Tamil Nadu, took STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors following another sterling performance, wherein he shot 52.3-percent from the floor and also registered 3 rebounds and 5 assists on the way to 27 EFF.

Cady Lalanne was impactful as well for Kuwait Club with a monster outing of 23 points on a 3-of-6 clip from beyond the arc and 21 rebounds, netting an EFF of 35.

Turki Alshemmari played his best game of the Final 8 to date as the seasoned guard came through with 15 points, all of which he collected from beyond the arc. Kuwait Club, as a whole, made a total of 13 3-pointers in the character-testing victory.

Alshemmari helped save Kuwait Club from the jaws of defeat, nailing a booming trifecta from the wing to send the game into a 70-all deadlock with 1:53 left in regulation.

Together, they overcame the balanced attack of Kazma spearheaded by Clint Chapman, who had 33 points as he the team was overly motivated to repeat after beating Kuwait Club, 81-80, in the Kuwait Federation Cup Semi-Finals recently, but fell just short.

FIBA