Edgar Sosa's 36 powers Al Naft to 23-point rout of Alkaramah

DAMASCUS (Syria) - Al Naft hardly broke a sweat in dealing Alkaramah a harsh 89-66 beatdown on the road in the WASL inaugurals' West Asia League opener, Wednesday night at the Al Fayhaa Stadium in Damascus.

The ball club from Iraq opened the match with 16 unanswered points, and the game would never be in question since as the home team just could not seem to figure out what hit them, ultimately leading to the deflating defeat.

Al Naft led by as many as 35 points, 74-39, in easily the most lopsided WASL game to date on the way to seizing early leadership of Group B.

Game heroes: Edgar Sosa spearheaded the mauling with a league-best 36 points on 9 3-pointers, together with 10 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals with an efficiency rating of 36 in over 39 minutes of play.

Sosa even outscored the entire home team by himself through most of the first half.

Antwaine Wiggins backed him up with 22 points and 8 rebounds, while Tony Mitchell supplied 10 boards and added 6 markers for Al Naft.

Omar Cheikh Ali, meanwhile, carried the fight for Alkaramah with 23 points and 7 rebounds, with Isshak Oubeid supporting him with 14.

Stats don't lie: Al Naft shot 44-percent from the floor, including a 15-of-34 clip from deep. They won the rebounding battle as well, 49-36, and forced their foes to commit 19 turnovers, which they converted to 22 points.

They said: "It was a good win for us. We started WASL on the road, and I'm glad we came out and got the win today." - Edgar Sosa, Al Naft

FIBA