KUWAIT CITY (Kuwait) - Ittihad Club refused to see the end of what has become a fairy-tale ride and are now bound to author another chapter following the completion of a spirited comeback, Tuesday night.
The newly-minted Saudi Basketball League champions rallied and beat Al Qadsia SC, 88-74, at the Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex to formalize the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-Gulf League Final.
Keron DeShields and Tevin Mack joined hands for the big third-quarter reversal before the rest of the squad put together a strong finish en route to completing a reverse sweep of the best-of-3 Semi-Final affair.
By doing so, the Jeddah-based club have now become the first KSA team to go this far in WASL, doing so despite a shaky start to a campaign where it started 1-2 and had to go through the Qualification to Semi-Finals.
Yet about two weeks from now, they will be vying for the Sub-Zone League title against the pioneering Shabab Al Ahli in a best-of-3 finale that starts Tuesday, April 8, in the latter's own stomping grounds in Dubai.
Game heroes: DeShields finished with a game-high 34 points, spiked by a 5-of-7 clip from three, on top of 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and 5 steals as he basically took over especially in the second half.
Mack, for his part, came through a strong double-double of 19 points and 17 rebounds as he patrolled the paint solidly for a team that continues to miss the towering Makur Maker due to an injury.
Crucial as well were the Almarwani brothers, with Mathna supplying 10 points and 12 rebounds while Mohammed came just a point shy of a personal double-double as he produced 9 points and 11 rebounds.
Turning point: Ittihad stared at a three-point deficit during the third but Osama Albargawi scored off the fastbreak before Mack nailed a jumper and a layup to give themselves a 51-48 edge with under four minutes left.
Then came DeShields and Kadi as well, before Mathna joined in by beating the buzzer with a triple as the team finished the period with an 18-3 scoring spree to take a 63-51 lead entering the final 10 minutes.
It would be all Ittihad since, with the American point guard himself delivering a rare four-point play - off an Abdulaziz Alhamidi foul - just about 45 seconds into the fourth quarter to push their lead to 67-51.
'KD' would also be responsible in pushing their lead to its highest at 20, 73-53, a few minutes later when he split his shots from the foul line after receiving a hard foul against Alhamidi as well.
Qadsia did try to put together a run that may at least threaten the visiting side behind Sayed Akbar but all that they could do was to make the gap respectable as Ittihad found ways to respond to almost every attempt.
Stats don't lie: Defense was indeed key for Ittihad as they racked up a total of 10 steals, which caused much of their foes' 15 turnovers toward becoming the first team from Saudi to reach the FIBA WASL Final 8.
They said: "This is an emotional moment for me and for my team. Because when we started, I think that nobody believed that we can go so far. We're going to the Finals. My players deserve this because not only in basketball but in general, you need to believe." - Slobodan Subotic, Head Coach, Ittihad Club
"We just did what we're supposed to. We didn't do anything special. We stuck to the plan and we came out victorious. Now we have to focus on the next game. Enjoy the moment but also don't bask in it ... now we have the belief, but we can't be overconfident." - Keron DeShields, Ittihad Club
"As the game went on, we kinda got away from our game plan. We tried to do too much individual shot selection and you're not gonna beat good teams when you play that way especially in a 40-minute game. We just gotta try to regroup ... we still have a chance to get to the Final 8." - Joey Stiebing, Head Coach, Al Qadsia SC
"It's definitely disappointing, but I can't hold my head down too long because we still have another chance to achieve one our goals: Making the [Final] 8. But it's definitely disappointing, and it hurts that we won't be in the Finals. But we still have a lot of season left." - Chinemelu Elonu, Al Qadsia SC.
FIBA