Hasan, Georges-Hunt lift Kuwait Club in the clutch, spoil Al Manama's home debut

MANAMA (Bahrain) - Another pair formed a lethal combo in the endgame and lifted Kuwait Club to a pulsating 91-88 road win over Al Manama to remain unscathed in WASL Gulf league, Tuesday night at the BBA Arena in Manama.

Just like what Mustafa Matwali and Jacob Pullen did in their opening week W over Al-Sadd, Marcus Georges-Hunt and Hamad Hasan showed great resolve and ultimately enabled their side to grab the solo lead in Group B at 2-0.

The tandem scored 9 of Kuwait Club's 10 points, joining hands to save their crew after falling behind by four with under 5 minutes to go.

Game heroes: Georges-Hunt top-scored for the victors with 22 points spiked by a trio of 3-pointers, together with 4 rebounds and 5 assists.

Big man Cody Lalanne nearly registered a double-double of 20 points and 9 boards as the two were carrying the load early on before receiving support from the others, eventually leading to 5 players finishing in twin-digit scoring.

Hasan contributed 14 points on a perfect 3-of-3 clip from beyond the arc, while Pullen and Mohammad Hasan chipped in 10 markers apiece.

Turning point: Once up 20-7 early in the match, Kuwait Club saw themselves facing a 77-81 deficit no thanks to the exploits of Al Manama's Mustafa Rashed.

The home team even appeared to have their foes all figured out when they prevented the latter to orchestrate a set properly, but Turki Alshemmari stikll found Georges-Hunt on the other corner for the go-ahead trey, 84-83, with 2:16 to go.

Hasan then pushed the lead to three, 86-83, shortly after, proving to be a prelude of the duo's final act in the succeeding minutes to bring Kuwait Club home.

Chuck Garcia cut the gap to a point following a perfect trip to the line but quickly, Hamad and Georges-Hunt connived for back-to-back lay-ups to make it 90-85.

Al Manama's failure to come up with a response -- 'Mosti' even committed a turnover in a botched off-the-player's-back inbound -- plus Pullen's split from the charity stripe with 31.8 seconds left all but settled the victory for Kuwait Club.

Stats don't lie: Kuwait Club shot 55.9-percent from the floor, thanks hugely to the 25 assists they dished as a unit.

They said: "Going into the game, the game plan was, they're a great shooting team, they strive off making a lot of threes, a lot of screening so playing the three-point line was a big key. And knowing they shoot the three-point shots a lot, we had to be able to get the long rebounds and play our strengths in running the open court. Towards the end of the game we locked in and played pretty good defense and got key rebounds, and guys stepped up and made open shots. We stay poised.' - Marcus Georges-Hunt, Kuwait Club

"Overall, I think we played a terrific game. It's a competitive team. We're small but we have big hearts. We came into this game with pure energy, listening to our coach, feeling the energy from each player. And I feel like we didn't see them as a bigger team than us, a taller team than us. We were evenly matched. Sometimes they had their runs, they had their ups and downs, we had our ups and downs but that's basketball. We came out there fighting ... and that's what you're gonna expect from Manama, to fight 'til the end." - Lamonte Ulmer, Al Manama

FIBA