KUWAIT CITY (Kuwait) - Al Qadsia SC wasted no time introducing themselves to the rest of the field, stunning Manama by way of a 90-84 decision in a solid FIBA WASL debut on Monday night at the Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex.
Relying on their outside sniping, the ball club from Kuwait seized control early before widening the gap to 18 during the third canto -a good enough margin to ward off the perennial contenders' fightback in the final minutes to complete the upset.
Game heroes: Mohammad Ashkanani showed the way with 17 points on an impressive 5-of-8 clip from beyond the arc, alongside 6 rebounds and a pair of assists.
Phil Greene finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds. Nigerian center Chinemelu Elonu imposed his presence inside and delivered 12 points and 19 rebounds.
Sayed Akbar scored 12 points as well on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line as the crew overcame the ejection of Tomislav Zubcic late in the second quarter. The Bosnian big man, though, managed to chip in 10 points before leaving.
Turning point: And weathering the early exit of a key cog was huge thanks to the composure that they all showed to survive their first test in WASL.
As Manama got to within just four with behind captain Hasan Nowrooz, Ashkanani was there to reply with a triple. Abdullah Alsaeid emulated as much and nailed a trey of his own, getting back Mohamed Kowaeid's own make for the 82-75 lead with 3:28 to go.
That gave Qadsia enough confidence to provide answers in the opposition's attempts afterward. The latter would cut the gap to four twice afterward, but Greene and Elonu stabilized matters and went on to close the game and secure the triumph.
Stats don't lie: Qadsia made a total of 16 triples with a 44.4-percent accuracy in the win, the most by a team so far in the 2024/2025 Gulf League season.
Thanks to their impressive outside shooting, the home team was able to negate the WASL career-high of Nowrooz, who finished with a game-high 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the floor - including 6-of-10 from deep - to lead Manama.
They said: "I'm very proud of our guys. They stuck to the game plan for the most part. They really battled. I told them that the reason why they won the game is they played harder. The team that plays the hardest usually wins. In saying that, now, down the road, we're gonna have to go to their place. It's gonna be a lot tougher. And we got to, between now and then, get better as a team. I know we will." - Joey Stiebing, Head Coach, Al Qadsia SC
"Of course it was a big win, especially coming against Manama, who's one of the bigger teams in this tournament. We were able to study Manama and find a good strategy for them - their strengths, their weaknesses. And we were able to execute it as Coach planned." - Mohammad Ashkanani, Al Qadsia SC
"First of all, I want to congratulate Qadsia for their first appearance, and their first win, and we wish them luck ... It's an unfortunate situation that we don't have a league yet. We don't play games to prepare the six new faces. We struggled at that. That was one of the main reasons why we couldn't function well today." - Linos Gavriel, Head Coach, Manama
"I know it's difficult to talk about, but I had a good game. I'm always there to help the team. The only upsetting thing is that it didn't result to a win. Hopefully we'll build on this. I'll be there whenever the team needs me." - Hasan Nowrooz, Manama
FIBA