Kuwait Club bound for Final 8 Semis with repeat over Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai

DUBAI (United Arab Emirates) - Kuwait Club clinched a spot in the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) Final 8 Semi-Finals by crushing the hopes of Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai, 75-60, Sunday night at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall.

The reigning WASL-Gulf champions broke away for good in the third quarter en route to formalizing their entry to the next phase together with BC Astana, who earlier beat Shahrdary Gorgan in a tight affair to improve to 2-0 as well in Group B.

Both Kuwait Club and Astana are bound for a collision course on 14 June, Tuesday, at 19:00 local time, with the winner finishing as the no. 1 seed of the pool.

Shabab Al Ahli, on the other hand, dropped to 0-2, making their meeting against Gorgan also on Tuesday a non-bearing affair between winless squads.

Game heroes: Hamad Hasan turned in his best performance of the Final 8 to date as he registered a game-high 26 points on 6 treys to lead Kuwait Club, in the process earning STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors.

Cady Lalanne backed him up with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds in the victory that saw 8 players of Coach Peter Schomers score at least a bucket.

Turning point: Kuwait Club only led by a point entering the second period until Hasan sparked a 15-4 run for a 38-26 lead with 6:10 on the clock.

They would be in control from that point on, so much that their lead grew to as big as 21 points, 71-50, after Hasan's perfect trip to the line with 4:42 left to play.

Stats don't lie: Turnovers really hurt Shabab Al Ahli as they committed a total of 17, most of which were converted into 14 points by Kuwait Club.

They said: "I just told my players, 'A win is a win.' Hamad played good. I'm happy with the win." - Peter Schomers, Head Coach, Kuwait Club

"Last game, I didn't start very well. I ended up with three points only. This game I really focused on playing and getting into my game." - Hamad Hasan, Kuwait Club

"This is a very good experience for us. We missed so many players, our best players like Nick, and Brandon got injured. But for sure, if ever we're gonna be much, much better." - Saeed Atiq, Assistant Coach, Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai

"It's tough. I'm new to the team, coming from my BAL season to here with a new team in three or four days, and trying to figure out where I fit, when to be aggressive and when not to be aggressive, learning the schemes on defense, it's tough to do that in four days. Especially against really good competition. I think if we had like another week, we wouldn't be 0-2 right now." - Dane Miller Jr., Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai

FIBA