Muharraq send Al Rayyan skidding, post back-to-back wins

DOHA (Qatar) - Muharraq sent Al Rayyan skidding, 79-65, to post their first win streak in the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) Season 2, Tuesday night at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall.

Game heroes: New acquisition Ra'Shad James wasted no time stamping his mark as the former USA Basketball stalwart finished with 20 points and 7 rebounds to lead the Bahraini ball club to their second win in a row, which hiked their card to 2-1 in Group A of the Gulf League.

Another new signing in Austin Daye made quite an impact as well, as the former Detroit Piston supplied 11 points, spiked by two triples, and 6 rebounds off the bench.

The usual suspects delivered in the road win, still, with Tyler Wilkerson coming through with 19 points and Bader Malabes chipping in 11 points as well, on top of 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

Group A

6/12 games played

		GAMES				STREAK	GAME POINTS					POINTS
#	Team	P	W	L	%	Last 5	For	Agt	+/-	FA	AA
1	Kuwait Club	3	3	0	100		303	246	57	101	82	6
2	Al Muharraq Sport Club	3	2	1	66.7		265	253	12	88.3	84.3	5
3	Al Rayyan	3	1	2	33.3		225	252	-27	75	84	4
4	Al Ahli	3	0	3	0		260	302	-42	86.7	100.7	3

Turning point: The game was tied at 31-all in the second quarter until Ali Mohamed nailed back-to-back triples, which sparked a 15-3 assault to give Muharraq a 46-34 halftime lead. The crew would be in control the rest of the way, eventually dealing Al Rayyan their second loss in a row.

Stats don't lie: Muharraq racked up 9 steals, tying the third-most steals in a game by a team in Season 2 of the Gulf League, which they also set in a loss to Kuwait Club on opening night.

They said: "Although Austin is next to me, he has a flu but he had a tremendous game with 13 points. Ra'Shad had 20 points. These are great contributions from them. I'm looking for more from Ra'Shad. We know Austin and his caliber, he's very great and has a great resume so he can benefit the team not only now, even for the future. We are very confident that we can reach further stages of this tournament." - Ahmed Jan, Head Coach, Muharraq

"It was just a good all-around victory for us as a team. I think we did a great job of executing the game plan. Coach did a great job of putting us in position to have a strong game tonight. I think we came together and we did the things defensively that would require a win. We did everything we could." - Austin Daye, Muharraq

"I commend my players for the fight they put in and how hard they tried. They really don't deserve these results but we've been struck by hard luck this season with problems, particularly injuries ... This is really tough for us to deal with. Despite these adversities, the players showed fighting spirit and they're trying really, really hard." - Stergios Koufos, Head Coach, Al Rayyan

"It was a tough game. Tough loss. But the biggest thing we could do moving forward is to stick together as a team, continue to build team chemistry, and work hard every day to get better for our next opportunity." - Nick Griffin, Al Rayyan

FIBA