JEDDAH (Saudi Arabia) - Ittihad Club showed steely resolve to thwart Al Qadsia SC, 74-71, and force a sudden death in the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-Gulf League Semi-Finals, Tuesday night at the Green Basketball Court.
Keron DeShields sank three all-important free throws in separate trips to the foul line inside the final 15 seconds of the match, and a missed trifecta by Sek Henry on the other end at the buzzer were all enough for the Saudi Arabian side to escape and, more importantly, keep their hopes of advancing to the finale very much alive.
The series now tied at 1-1, both squads will now shift their focus on the all-important Game 3 set next Tuesday, March 25, at the Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex in Kuwait City. Tipoff is set at 22:00 local time.
Game heroes: DeShields showed the way with 23 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals for an efficiency of 23 as he sustained his solid play after leading Ittihad to the 2025 Saudi Basketball League championship.
There, he finished with a solid 21-7-6 stat line as they beat last season's FIBA WASL campaigner Al Ahli Jeddah by way of a 76-75 decision to complete their redemption arc after falling short in the Finals last season.
And that kind of confidence indeed rubbed off to the rest of the squad. Tevin Mack, for one, came through with 17 points, spiked by a pair of treys, and 5 rebounds, while Mohammed Almarwani added 15 points and 7 rebounds.
Osama Albargawi and Mathna Almarwani provided significant contributions as the squad pulled through despite missing Makur Maker due to an injury en route to snapping a three-game losing skid against the Kuwaiti side.
Turning point: Ittihad set the tone early and even built a 36-23 lead during the second quarter, and appeared to be coasting to the W when it held a 71-58 advantage with only 4:22 remaining in the game.
But Qadsia rallied back behind Henry and Chinemelu Elonu, and the excitement would soon turn into anxiety when they managed to knock within just two points twice inside the last 17.2 seconds of the match.
Fortunately for the home team, DeShields was there to provide the much-needed stability to a ship that found itself sailing in rough seas immeditely, going 3-of-4 from the stripe to keep the opposition at bay.
Henry tried to send the game into an extra five minutes but his three missed its target as time expired, and the partisan crowd that filled the venue erupted in celebration as their team stayed afloat in WASL.
Stats don't lie: Turnovers were truly the issue of Qadsia in falling short of completing the sweep as they committed 24 - 15 more than what Ittihad had. Those errors were turned to 28 points by the latter.
They said: "Congratulations to my players. They played hard tonight even though they are exhausted after playing in the Finals three days ago. Because we knew that if we lost today, there's no way back to Kuwait. After winning the championship last Saturday, it was very, very tough, and I knew that it was gonna be like this until the end. But they showed everybody that they deserve not only this win tonight but all the results they've had this year. Because they are winners, they refuse to lose ... now the series is tied at 1-1." - Slobodan Subotic, Head Coach, Ittihad Club
"We just worked. No matter what. The next day [after the championship], we had a two-a-day. The next day, all our players came in and shot. We don't rest. No days off. We literally practice, practice, practice, and there's no [other] recipe for hard work. And Coach knows that. He puts us through the wringer. He was a player so he understands what it does for us and the guys buy into it. And we work. That's the formula: work." - Keron DeShields, Ittihad Club
"I know they play hard, they defend, and we expect that. Every time we play them, we've had that type of game. We have to do a better job. Ittihad was better than us. I liked the fact that we closed the gap late in the game. Sek had a shot at the buzzer. I thought it was going down. I really did. But it kinda went in and out. But give them (Ittihad) a lot of credit and hopefully, we'll have a really big game next week against them." - Joey Stiebing, Head Coach, Al Qadsia SC
"I don't care about what they just won because we've been beating them. For us we're just trying to take care of business. I mean, congratulations to them winning whatever they won the other night. But our focus was to come out here and win this game. We took an L, we're gonna watch film, and we're going to get better. And we're going to take care of business next Tuesday." - Sek Henry, Al Qadsia SC
FIBA