MANAMA (Bahrain) - Manama came away with a narrow 78-73 victory over Ittihad Club to finish as the second seed in Group B of the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-Gulf League before another solid crowd at the BBA Arena on Tuesday night.
The Bahraini side stormed back from a 16-point deficit and took control in the deciding chapter on the way to booking their third consecutive appearance to the Sub-Zone League's Final Phase after finishing the pool stage with a 4-2 card.
With this, Qadsia have secured the no. 1 spot in the group, meaning that the league newcomers are headed straight to the Gulf League Semi-Finals.
The team from Kuwait had earlier ousted Al Arabi SC by way of an 89-77 rout to strengthen their bid of locking up the top seed, eventually witnessing their hopes turn into reality following the result of the match held at the Bahraini capital.
Manama will now turn their attention to the Qualification to Semi-Finals, a familiar territory for the wards of Coach Linos Gavriel as they went through the said phase back in the 2022/2023 inaugurals - a season that ended with them on top.
Ittihad, meanwhile, will settle for a third-seed finish with a 2-4 record.
Game heroes: Tony Carr once again showed the way for Manama with 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor, alongside 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
But their designated closer received ample support, with point guard Ahmed Haji supplying 18 points, spiked by a quartet of three-pointers.
AJ John chipped in 12 points and 7 boards, together with an assist, a steal, and a block each as four more players chipped in at least 4 points in the win.
Turning point: Game was tied at 60-all in the fourth but Haji came through with a triple for the 63-60 lead with 4:57 to go, which put them ahead the rest of the way.
Still, there was no stopping Ittihad in threatening and even knocked to within a solitary point, but Carr swung the ball to Haji for easily his most important trey of the night as it proved to be the dagger, 75-71, with 36.9 seconds left to play.
Stats don't lie: Ball movement was indeed key in the W as Manama dished out a total of 17 assists against only 7 turnovers - efficient, indeed.
FIBA