Minnerath clutch, saves Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai in WASL opener

MUSCAT (Oman) - Shabab Al Ahli Dubai frustrated Al Bashaer in their own house, 71-69, in a thrilling FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) opener, Monday night at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat, Oman.

Nick Minnerath came through in the clutch, nailing the go-ahead jumper from mid-range with only five-tenths of a second remaining to save his side from disaster after coughing up a 22-point lead in the second quarter.

The 34-year-old went on to finish with 18 points to lead his side to the early Group A leadership (1-0) in the Gulf League.

Game heroes: Milan Milosevic notched a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds, Brandon Triche supplied 12 markers, as Omar Alshabebi added 11 markers.

Turning point: The aforementioned had a hand in Shabab Al Ahli's second-quarter eruption, which saw the team outperform their counterparts through a 25-8 decimation on the way to a commanding 46-26 lead at the half.

But what was expected to be a one-sided affair turned out otherwise. The home team began to gain steam in the third canto with Aaron Clyde Parks leading the way, and then went full throttle come the game's deciding quarter.

Behind the hot shooting of Ahmed Al Halhali from beyond the arc, Al Bashaer tied the game up at 69-all approaching the final 2 minutes.

But Minnerath had other plans, and Shabab Al Ahli went on to spoil their foes' fightback -- as well as the 19-point efforts of both Parks and Al Halhali.

Stats don't lie: Shabab Al Ahli received a major contribution from their bench with 30 points, and made the opposition pay dearly for the 20 turnovers they committed by converting those to 22 points.

They said: 
"We don't care who we're playing. I mean, every game we play, we expect to win. If we can limit the turnovers and things like that like we did in the second half, then we have a good chance." - Nick Minnerath, Shabab Al Ahli Dubai

"We started slow. And I feel like anytime you start slow with a team that's good... they like to hit first, they like to push hard, they like to play hard. We just started too late. I like how our guys we came back and we foight, we just gotta do better in the next game in the first half by starting out strong. We just started off a liottle bit slow and we caught up. Sometimes when we start slow, it's a hard time trying to get back into the game." - Aaron Clyde Parks, Al Bashaer

FIBA