MANAMA (Bahrain) - Shabab Al Ahli finally made their dream come true of reaching the FIBA WASL-Gulf League Finals after giving Manama the boot, 88-81, on Monday night at the BBA Arena.
The defending UAE League Basketball champions took control of the game for good in the third quarter before repelling a late-game comeback attempt by the home team on their way to completing the sweep of the Semi-Finals - and break as well what had been the trend in the Sub-Zone League's title picture.
Over the past two seasons, Manama and Kuwait Club fought one another in the Gulf League Finals, with the latter emerging triumphant on both occasions that solidified their place as the region's best squad.
But surprisingly, the Kuwaiti Division 1 League powerhouse got booted out in the Qualification to Semi-Finals by Ittihad Club in a truly uncharacteristic campaign highlighted by a head coaching change.
Now, even WASL's first-ever champions won't be making three consecutive appearances in the Big Dance of the Sub-Zone League after getting swept by the inaugural Basketball Champions League Asia (BCL Asia) runners-up, marking an end to a spirited comeback that saw Manama overcome a slow 0-2 start into the season.
Shabab Al Ahli will now wait for the winner of the other Semi-Finals pairing featuring Al Qadsia SC and Ittihad Club to be their opponents in the title bout. Qadsia currently lead the best-of-3 affair at 1-0.
Game heroes: Qais Alshabebi continued his solid play for the Dubai-based club as he led the way with 21 points and 12 rebounds, and added a pair of steals as well en route to finishing with an efficiency of 23.
Young star Hamed Lateef made 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, while Deshawndre Washington almost registered another triple-double as he collected 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists.
Jamel Hagins had 12 points and 12 rebounds. Omer Alameri also came through with 12 points, spiked by a trio of three-pointers, while Chris Crawford chipped in 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists off the bench.
Turning point: Shabab Al Ahli appeared to have the game secured when they stretch their lead to 80-69 with 4:56 to go, only for Manama to issue a major threat by chopping the gap to only four points, 82-78.
Fortunately for the visiting side, Alameri knocked down arguably the most important trey of the night with 40.5 seconds left. He would also be responsible for making it an 86-81 edge following a split to the line.
The door slowly closed on Manama since then, with Ahmed Haji and the other key cogs missing especially from deep that may have altered the outcome. A perfect trip to the charity stripe by Washington with only 6.5 seconds left to play all but sealed the victory for the no. 1 seed of Group A back in the preliminaries.
Stats don't lie: The team of Coach Miodrag Perisic made it happen on defense as evidenced by their 8 steals, which wee 6 more than what their foes had. They also took care of the ball better with only 8 turnovers.
FIBA