JEDDAH (Saudi Arabia) - They say the third time's a charm and that holds true for Shabab Al Ahli.
One of FIBA WASL's pioneering teams finally struck gold in the competition as they captured the 2024/2025 Gulf League title after completing a two-game sweep of Ittihad Club through a 90-83 victory on Tuesday night.
Hardly bothered by the sea of yellow that filled up the Green Basketball Court, the defending UAE League Basketball champions took care of business right from the get-go en route to finishing their story.
Shabab Al Ahli are in their third stint in as many seasons of the pan-regional contest, but it's only now that they have succeeded in conquering the Sub-Zone League after coming up short in their previous runs.
After reaching the Semi-Finals during the 2022/2023 inaugurals, the team from Dubai couldn't get past the Qualification to Semi-Finals the following season, which also meant missing the Final 8.
Needless to say, all those disappointing finishes fueled the entire crew to not let go of the opportunity this time, closing it out on the road as they no longer wanted the Saudi Arabian side to get any sort of hope.
Now they'd be flying back home as WASL-Gulf League titlists, at last, and will soon turn their attention to the Final 8 in May where they will be representing the Sub-Zone League along with Ittihad and Al Qadsia SC.
"We absolutely deserved this win tonight," offered head coach Miodrag Perisic, who hasn't lost a game in WASL since taking over the team's head coaching reins just before 2024 came to a close and is 6-0 so far.
Main man Qais Alshabebi led Shabab Al Ahli with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Game 1 heroes Hamid Albreiki and Deshawndre Washington sustained their fine play and finished with 19 points apiece.
Jamelle Hagins came through with a strong double-double of 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the floor and 16 rebounds, which he laced with 3 assists and 3 steals on his way to netting an efficiency of 34.
Chris Crawford chipped in 10 as the former WASL-West Asia campaigner with Beirut Club helped restore order in the midst of the home team's fourth-quarter stand before the aforementioned came in for the strong windup.
As Ittihad sliced what was once a 12-point gap to just five, Crawford nailed a deuce and followed it up with a triple to push the spread to double-digits again, and Alshabebi would make it a 77-65 count with 5:08 to go.
The club from Jeddah still tried to stay within shouting distance but Shabab Al Ahli found answers, with Lateef delivering a huge blow by scoring through the foul for the 87-79 advantage with 57.1 seconds remaining.
Free throws by Hagins and Alshabebi, coupled by the opposition's failure to put together one final run, inside the game's final 24 seconds were all that they needed to walk away with the title in their possession.
"For us, it was very tough in the first two years. But we were able to make changes," reflected Alshabebi, himself a Shabab Al Ahli lifer. "We made some changes. Now I think we [have found] all the pieces to the puzzle."
Ittihad, on the other hand ,once again leaned on a two-headed attack in the loss, with Tevin Mack leading the way with 24 points and 14 rebounds and Keron DeShields backing him up with 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Mathna Almarwani was the only other double-digit scorer for the squad with 12 points.
The loss marked the end of what had been a Cinderella story for a team that started the season with only two wins in their first six games but Ittihad still have a chance to aim for the ultimate goal in the Final 8 next month.
"I think this game was a great character builder," said an optimistic DeShields. "I think this game happened for a reason. I really, really hate to lose ... but I just want to say that this game is going to help us out."
FIBA