MANAMA (Bahrain) - History repeated itself as Manama ousted Al Ahli CLub, 75-69, before an electric crowd at the BBA Arena to complete the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-Gulf League Semi-Finals picture, Monday night.
Ahmed Haji and Subah Azzam came through with the biggest of shots to give themselves the lead for good before Clint Chapman helped put the game away as the pan-regional tilt's inaugural champions leaned on experience down the stretch to pull off the reverse sweep in the series - just like what they did in the past.
It could be recalled that the Bahrain's most successful ball club lost Game 1 of their Qualification to Semi-Finals battle with Kazma back in the first season, but went on to win the next two to advance, eventually going to the Sub-Zone League Final which also became their ticket toward the culminating Final 8.
About two years later and the team found themselves doing it all over again albeit against a different team, which also happens to be one of their fiercest rivals in the Bahraini Premier League for a long time now.
With their story continuing, Manama will soon turn their attention to the Semi-Finals, where they will be facing Shabab Al Ahli in a best-of-3 affair in a clash between two of WASL's pioneering members.
Game heroes: Chapman led the way with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks as the league veteran held the fort for a side that lost Tony Carr late in the third quarter after being called for an unsportsmanlike foul.
Carr, who has been the team's designated closer, was having himself a night with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists before being booted out, indeed a downer for him and the team considering what's at stake in the match.
Azzam contributed 15 points and 6 boards as he played a crucial role in their strong windup, which ultimately brought Manama to their third consecutive Gulf League Semi-Finals appearance.
Turning point: Azzam himself was responsible for pushing their lead to two possessions after Haji broke the deadlock, catching the assist of Chapman for a layup to make it a 68-64 spread with 1:50 remaining.
The game would slowly drift away from Al Ahli since, with Chapman blocking Elijah Thomas twice underneath the rim before converting a beautiful bucket inside off a spin move to push their lead to six.
A split by Haji made it a 71-64 advantage for Manama with 35.6 seconds left to play and that mini 7-0 spurt all but sealed the triumph for a team that's still dreaming to win a Gulf League championship.
Stats don't lie: The 5 blocks Chapman tallied serves as his new career-high in WASL, surpassing the 4 he set just last season to help Kazma sweep Al Rayyan, 78-77, in the Gulf League Qualification to Semi-Finals.
They said: "I think missing Tony gave us extra motivation. The guys brought in together, they locked in. They knew what we had to do. We changed a bit our game plan, how we attack. They stayed committed defensively. Huge stops especially Clint here, he had two blocks in a row. That made the statement that the game is over, and we're gonna win the game. Congratulations to the players." - Alexandros Lekisvili, Assistant Coach, Manama
"There's not a lot of words, I'm just proud. And I wanna say thank you to this guy next to me (Lekisvili), and to our coaching staff, these guys really stepped up and helped us win this series. Big thanks to him, congrats to him as well. I just feel proud. And I'm excited about the next round. "- Clint Chapman, Manama
"More so disappointed than frustrating. Coach has given us a really good mindset of trying to control what we can control. I felt like we not only let ourselves down but kinda let Coach down in a way of not following the actual game plan. He does a really good job of laying out near every scenario that we'll face and he's put us in situations where we could preview how this would go. Unfortunately, we didn't execute." - Elijah Thomas, Al Ahli Club
FIBA