Leslie, Chapman heroics lift Kazma to Gulf Semis

DOHA (Qatar) - Travis Leslie came through in the clutch as Kazma escaped Al Rayyan in a double overtime thriller, 78-77, to reach the FIBA WASL-Gulf League Season 2 Semi-Finals, Tuesday night at the Al Rayyan Indoor Hall in the Qatari capital.

The bruising forward took it strong to the hoop and eventually completed a tough three-point play off a Mouhammad Faye foul with 2.5 seconds left, and the visiting side would turn to their defense afterwards to prevent the home team from converting on the other end.

His all-important play also saved the efforts of Clint Chapman, who helped send the game into OT after seeing themselves trailing, 59-53, with under two minutes left in regulation.

Big thanks to their heroics, Kazma have finally reached the sub-zone Semis after failing to get the job done against eventual FIBA WASL champions Manama in the inaugurals.

Now, they have forged an all-Kuwaiti showdown versus defending Gulf League champions Kuwait Club in the Semis. The best-of-3 series begins on March 25.

Game heroes: Chapman finished with 32 points and 16 rebounds, together with 2 steals and 4 blocks for an efficiency of 37 as he did it on both ends to keep themselves afloat.

The veteran big man tied the game at 60-all with 2.8 seconds left in regulation, and then came up with the game-saving block on Meho Haracic to send the match into an extra period.

Leslie, on the other hand, supplied his own double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds on the way to earning STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors.

Stats don't lie: It is the first time in FIBA WASL that a game went into 2OT. It is, furthermore, the first time that a team swept a Qualification to Semi-Finals best-of-3 series.

They said: "I congratulate my guys for fighting and never giving up and trying to find a way to win. I'm very happy for the guys, very happy for the club. I think the reward has come after the hard work we have done. To be really honest, I think the could have gone either way .. but today we fought until the end, we never gave up. I congratulate my players for this kind of attitude. The reward came in a big win for us." - Bojan Lazic, Head Coach, Kazma

"It was a back screen for me, to curl to the basket. I was open. Yousiff gave me the ball. I knew he was kinda on my back, I kinda jumped back into him and just threw it up, and it happened to go in. It was a crazy shot but I'm glad I made it." - Travis Leslie, Kazma

"i'm proud of my players because a team from Qatar made it this far in FIBA WASL. I want to congratulate Kazma for fighting hard and winning this game. Now we have to look into the problems that we have ... Despite the injuries, we fought hard all the way to end. We gave the game away to Kazma because of a really bad reaction. on defense in the last two seconds." - Stergios Koufus, Head Coach, Al Rayyan

"Through out this whole FIBA WASL season, we've been through ups and downs as a team. But the positive outlook is no matter if we win or lose, we stick together as a team and continue to move forward. Unfortunately, WASL is over for us, but we still have opportunities to grow as a team in the Qatar league and we're just gonna continue to move forward." - Nick Griffin, Al Rayyan

FIBA