ZOUK MIKAEL (Lebanon) - Tabiat Basketball exemplified how important short-term memory could be in a quick tournament as they sent Amman United Club skidding, 79-64, to finish their First Round campaign in the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-West Asia League strongly, Saturday night at the Nouhad Nawfal Stadium.
Coming off a tough 110-100 overtime loss to reigning champion Al Riyadi barely 24 hours ago, the wards of Coach Mehran Shahintab swiftly moved on and instead vented their frustrations toward the Jordanian crew on the way to netting win no. 3 in four outings - indeed a confidence booster for the Second Round set April.
Amman United, on the other hand, absorbed their second loss in a row after a promising start to tournament, definitely not the ideal form they'd want to be in entering Sunday's match with Sagesse SC.
Game heroes: Sina Vahedi starred for Tabiat anew as he flirted with a triple-double after finishing with 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. He also had 4 steals and a block, chalking up an efficiency of 37.
Ivan Buva came through with a double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Stedmon Lemon added 16 points as the trio showed how much they wanted to bounce back after losing to the Yellow Castle.
Turning point: Lemon, who missed what could've been the game-winning jumper against Al Riyadi late in regulation, was responsible for kick-starting their third-quarter pullaway toward the W.
As Freddy Ibrahim cut the gap to three, Lemon responded with a jam, and that started a 9-0 run - capped by a Vahedi three-pointer - to push their lead to 12 points, 49-37, with under six minutes remaining.
Tabiat would follow up that solid third quarter with a strong fourth-quarter push, which inflated their lead to two decades' worth, 70-50, thanks to another outside shot courtesy of Vahedi with 3:55 left to play.
Stats don't lie: The defending Iran Basketball League champions drained a total of 10 threes, six of which came from Vahedi himself. His 9 assists, furthermore, nearly matched their foes' output (12).
They said: "We had a short time from last night because we played a tough game ... maybe between these two games we only had maybe around 15 hours. I knew that my players are tired, but they made the decision to have a good game. And today, they managed to organize everything from offense to defense. I appreciate also that they shared the ball very well." - Mehran Shahintab, Head Coach, Tabiat Basketball
"It was good, but we didn't win the Al Riyadi game yesterday. But I'm happy that we finished with three wins. Now we can go with a good atmosphere to practice in Iran for the next round." - Sina Vahedi, Tabiat Basketball
"Today wasn't our today. We missed a lot of open shots from three points; our percentage is really bad. The game is done. We focus now on the Sagesse game tomorrow." - Abdallah Abuqoura, Head Coach, Amman United Club
"As Coach said, terrible shooting night from all across the board. Nothing was falling for us, and they had good rhythm. It just wasn't our day, So hopefully, we can get it going tomorrow." - Freddy Ibrahim, Amman United Club
FIBA