Manama bounce back to beat Beirut Club for Semi-Finals bid

DUBAI (United Arab Emirates) - The comeback kids are back!

Manama bounce back from a tough WASL Final 8 debut loss to beat Beirut Club, 86-75, and claim the remaining Semi-Finals ticket up for grabs.

The club from Bahrain went off to a strong start and, despite the determined efforts by their Lebanese counterparts, were able to hold on for an exciting win. Not only was this win important for Manama as their first in the WASL Final 8, it also clinches the team a spot in the Semi-Finals where they will face BC Astana next.

Game heroes: The Manama players took turns stepping up in each quarter and when the final interval arrived, it was Sir’Dominic Pointer’s time to shine. The STEP AHEAD Player of the Game had big shoes to fill for Manama, following up the performance of Lamont “Momo” Jones as the lead guard and continued to do well with 14 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 steals.

His lone three-pointer made in the fourth quarter, followed by an assist to another three-pointer in the immediate play was the sequence that knocked the wind out of Beirut Club’s comeback attempt.

Turning point: Mustafa Rashed had 9 points on three three-pointers in the first quarter, giving Manama a decent cushion early on. However, they were quickly challenged by the opposition who cut the deficit down to 4 points in the second quarter.

From there, it was Mohammed Hamooda’s turn to step up as he knocked down 2 three-pointers to score 10 straight points to keep Manama up by a comfortable margin.

Stats don't lie: Beirut Club attempted twice as many free-throws as Manama (22 attempts to 11 attempts), but were only able to convert that into 12 points, leaving 10 points at the charity stripe in a game where they lost by 11.

 

They said: 

“for the first time it’s a great tournament, great exp I’m lucky to be a part of it because it is near the end of my career maybe… Good luck for Al Riyad, I hope that can make it to the Finals.” - Elie Rustom, Beirut Club

“Congrats to the teams that made it to the Semi-Finals, I wish it was us, but it is what it is... WASL was a great experience for me personally. It is great for Asian basketball for all the teams. It’s a great tournament. I personally enjoy the experience because I got to go against players that are tougher, older players that have more experienced. You don’t get that only playing in the league in Lebanon.” - Naim Rabay, Beirut Club.

“This is very simple in basketball - you just need to play together, even if you are sitting on the bench, you need to show your emotions, and support each other.… This is team sports, we need to all understand. This why [Manama] won, they put the effort from the beginning...” Coach Renatas Kurilionokas, Beirut Club

“It was difficult to bounce back two days for us after a blowout. We’re not used to it. In the local competition, we’re competitive and winning games and it wasn’t easy, but to show character in a bounce back to take an important win… It’s a big moment for us, you know, small Bahrain to be a representative in the top 4 teams of WASL. We’re proud of it. We’re going to continue to stay humble and work hard to achieve more… It feels great at first [to make it to the Semi-FInals, but it’s something that we’ve built through the process… winning in Kuwait, being down by one against Kazma, then qualifying for the Semi-Finals and beating Al Hilal 2-0. Anyways, we built that… it was a process and we built that with the guys and they did an amazing job.” - Coach Pantelis Gavriel, Manama

“We started the game, we moved the ball… fourth quarter we held on to the lead. That's a tough team out there. Like coach said, we’re a little team but we got heart and we played well... Since I’ve been here that’s what it’s been [the next man up mentality]. I think we’re a good team, we play well together, and we spread the ball around. We don’t care who scores, we just make the right play.” - Sir’Dominic Point, Manama

FIBA