DUBAI (United Arab Emirated) - Hamed Lateef showed nerves of steel in the endgame to tow Shabab Al Ahli past Ittihad Club, 90-88, and move a win away from the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-Gulf League title, Tuesday night.
The young star finished with 14 points, none more important than the booming trifecta he knocked down from the corner with 55.4 seconds left that gave his side the 89-87 lead - and put themselves ahead for good.
Tevon Mack's failure to convert on the other end, a split by Deshawndre Washington, and Keron DeShields missing the potential game-winning trey as time expired enabled the reigning UAE champions to escape.
The crew would go on to celebrate with the home crowd at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall as they extended as well their winning streak in WASL to six games now, which dates back to the Group Phase.
Now, their focus shifts to Game 2 of the best-of-3 affair next Tuesday in their opponent's own turf in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, looking to get the job done and give the storied club their maiden crown in the Sub-Zone League.
Game heroes: Washington led Shabab Al Ahli with 29 points and 10 rebounds, netting an efficiency of 32 as he also collected 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block to submit a full line in the 32 minutes he logged.
Lead big man Qais Alshabebi delivered 15 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out of the game with 37.5 seconds left. Jamelle Hagins also made his presence felt with 12 points and 6 rebounds, along with 2 assists.
Turning point: Ittihad appeared to have seized control of the match when veteran center Mohammed Almarwani gave the visitors the 87-84 lead following a conversion inside approaching the final two minutes.
But Washington responded with a floater about 23 seconds later to cut the gap to a solitary point, which would help pave the way for the biggest play of the night courtesy of the second-generation hooper.
Washington actually tried to attack the defense but kicked it out to Chris Crawford, who then swung the ball to Lateef on his left after Keron DeShields gambled and closed out on Crawford instead.
Lateef had all the time in the world to sink the trey and made it. Mack did slice the deficit to a point again with a split off Alshabebi's last foul, but missed what could've been the go-ahead bucket underneath moments later.
The door slowly closed on Ittihad afterward when Washington went 1-of-2 from the line with 12.1 seconds, and it got completely shut when DeShields' attempt at a game-winner from deep didn't hit the target.
Stats don't lie: DeShields and Mack carried much of the load for Ittihad with 37 and 32 points, respectively, but their practically two-man show wasn't enough as four finished in double figures for Shabab Al Ahli.
It helped the Dubai-based club, too, that four other players in the nine-man rotation scored at least 4 points in the triumph that saw them shoot 47-percent from the floor and commit just a few turnovers - 9 to be exact.
They said: ""I think tonight was a real Final. I congratulate our opponents, I congratulate my players. Now it's 1-0. It's still far away until the second victory, but we must work for it." - Miodrag Perisic, Head Coach, Shabab Al Ahli
"We gotta work on executing better, just listening and paying attention to detail. But our toughness and resilience to keep fighting through was great. Even Hamed, he didn't make shots early but he made a very big shot for us. And everybody celebrated because that's the kind of player he is." - Deshawndre Washington, Shabab Al Ahli
"When you lose a game by one possession it always hurts. But I think we didn't play good defense tonight. They scored 90 points. On offense we were pretty good but not so much help from our bench. But this is gonna be I think, will be a long series. I hope we can come back here." - Slobodan Subotic, Head Coach, Ittihad Club
"It's tough losing a close game either way it goes. Sometimes that's how the ball bounces. But like Coach said, we didn't play defense well the whole game. Giving up 90 points is too much for us so we gotta regroup and try to come back here for Game 3. Gotta get the second game at home first." - Tevin Mack, Ittihad Club
FIBA