Muharraq post second straight win

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Muharraq Club claimed a hard-earned 74-64 victory over Qatar Sports Club of Qatar last night in the 35th Arab Clubs Basketball Championship, currently being held in Doha.

The contest was the third for both sides in Group A of the competition’s preliminary stage and it was the second successive win for the Bahrainis.

Muharraq are the Kingdom’s lone representatives in the tournament, which features 18 top teams from across the region.

Yesterday’s result followed an opening loss to defending champions Kuwait Sports Club, which they followed with a resounding win over Bureij Services of Palestine.

Muharraq finished second in their division and are now headed into the round of 16 where they will take on Dynamo Lebanon from Lebanon.

The tournament’s 18-team field has been divided into four groups for the preliminaries.

Following a single round-robin, the top four in each move on to the next phase, with the match-ups being based on their seedings. Today is a rest day and the eliminations begin from tomorrow.

The quarter-finals will then be held on Monday, with the semis on Wednesday and both the gold and bronze medal games on Thursday next week.

In last night’s encounter, Qatar came out the gate the aggressors and took a 17-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Muharraq then got into their groove in the second and enjoyed a slim 34-33 edge at the break.

The Bahrainis continued their strong play after the re-start, moving further ahead 60-53 after three and then keeping the gap in the final canto en route to securing the 10-point winning margin.

The tournament is being held under the auspices of the Arab Basketball Confederation.

Group B features Al Ittihad Alexandria of Egypt, Union Sportive Medina d’Alger of Algeria, Al Ahly Doha from Qatar, Seeb from Oman and Lebanon’s Dynamo.

Group C includes Sanaa from Yemen, AS Sale from Morocco, Al Qadsiya from Kuwait and Al Fateh from Saudi Arabia.

Group D comprises Al Ittihad from Libya, Al Ahly of Egypt, Dijlah University from Iraq, MTB Majd Tanja from Morocco and Beirut First Club from Lebanon.

In the previous Arab clubs championship last year, Bahrain’s Al Ahli Club were the Kingdom’s representatives.

They made it to the round of 16. Kuwait went on to clinch the title with a one-point victory over Egypt’s Ahly in the final. A Bahraini team has yet to win the tournament title.