Khalid802
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"Bahrain go down fighting (by Yousef Ahmed)
BRAVE Bahrain bowed to leading title-hopefuls Qatar 66-70 yesterday in the basketball competition of the 19th Gulf Cup, being played in Oman, writes Patrick Salomon.
The nationals battled throughout the contest and came up just short of upsetting their heavily favoured rivals, who stayed undefeated after three games and have almost certainly secured the tournament championship.
The Bahrainis, on the other hand, lost their second contest in three tries, and must win their final game against defending champions the UAE on the event's final day tomorrow for a shot at the bronze medal.
Qatar face hosts Oman the same day, in what is expected to be a rout for the Qataris en route to securing the winners' trophy. The Omanis slumped to their third straight defeat in yesterday's other game at Muscat's Nizwa Sports Complex, losing 62-95 to Kuwait. The Kuwaitis moved to first place on the competition standings, but have completed all their games while the other four teams have one each to play.
Kuwait are in line to come away with the silver medals, pending Qatar's expected win tomorrow.
Bahrain battled their Qatari counterparts until the very end yesterday, despite the obvious size advantage held by the victors who feature several naturalised African players.
Ahmed Al Mutawa (199-F/C-81, college: Broward CC) and Mahmood Ghuloom (187-G-79) helped the Bahrainis race out to a quick 6-2 lead to start the game, but Qatar eventually got into their groove and took a narrow 12-8 edge after a low-scoring first quarter.
Back-to-back three-pointers from Hussain Mohammed and Ghuloom then tied the proceedings at 14-apiece to start the second period, when the nationals continued to keep pace with Qatar and head into half-time only down by five points (31-26).
Hussain then made another two three-pointers coming out of the gate to put Bahrain in the lead again 32-31, but the Qataris, spearheaded by big man Yaseen Ismail, quickly answered with an 8-2 run, which they continued to build on for a 45-37 lead midway through the third quarter.
The Bahrainis continued to slump late in the period, and found themselves down by 15 (39-54) with a minute remaining, but Ahmed Malallah and Hussain each scored from behind the arc to help them cut the deficit to single-digits (45-54) with one quarter to play.
Hussain continued his strong showing in the last canto, when he was ably assisted by Yasser bu Naffour and Mohammed Qurban in cutting Qatar's led to just 59-53. The Qataris, however, proved too strong and maintained a 68-60 advantage close to the final buzzer, before Bahrain cut the losing margin to just four points in the end but could not get any closer. However the dissapointment of the game was the coaching. keeping Al Mutawa on the bench for most of the second half is like wanting to lose the game, Al Mutawa is our Tallest player and one of our most talented Bigman, so why keep him out of the game?
Hussain led the national team's valiant cause with 26 points including five triples, while Ghuloom pitched in with another 18 markers and Al Mutawa score 2 points and 6 rebounds in just 10 minutes of play".
BRAVE Bahrain bowed to leading title-hopefuls Qatar 66-70 yesterday in the basketball competition of the 19th Gulf Cup, being played in Oman, writes Patrick Salomon.
The nationals battled throughout the contest and came up just short of upsetting their heavily favoured rivals, who stayed undefeated after three games and have almost certainly secured the tournament championship.
The Bahrainis, on the other hand, lost their second contest in three tries, and must win their final game against defending champions the UAE on the event's final day tomorrow for a shot at the bronze medal.
Qatar face hosts Oman the same day, in what is expected to be a rout for the Qataris en route to securing the winners' trophy. The Omanis slumped to their third straight defeat in yesterday's other game at Muscat's Nizwa Sports Complex, losing 62-95 to Kuwait. The Kuwaitis moved to first place on the competition standings, but have completed all their games while the other four teams have one each to play.
Kuwait are in line to come away with the silver medals, pending Qatar's expected win tomorrow.
Bahrain battled their Qatari counterparts until the very end yesterday, despite the obvious size advantage held by the victors who feature several naturalised African players.
Ahmed Al Mutawa (199-F/C-81, college: Broward CC) and Mahmood Ghuloom (187-G-79) helped the Bahrainis race out to a quick 6-2 lead to start the game, but Qatar eventually got into their groove and took a narrow 12-8 edge after a low-scoring first quarter.
Back-to-back three-pointers from Hussain Mohammed and Ghuloom then tied the proceedings at 14-apiece to start the second period, when the nationals continued to keep pace with Qatar and head into half-time only down by five points (31-26).
Hussain then made another two three-pointers coming out of the gate to put Bahrain in the lead again 32-31, but the Qataris, spearheaded by big man Yaseen Ismail, quickly answered with an 8-2 run, which they continued to build on for a 45-37 lead midway through the third quarter.
The Bahrainis continued to slump late in the period, and found themselves down by 15 (39-54) with a minute remaining, but Ahmed Malallah and Hussain each scored from behind the arc to help them cut the deficit to single-digits (45-54) with one quarter to play.
Hussain continued his strong showing in the last canto, when he was ably assisted by Yasser bu Naffour and Mohammed Qurban in cutting Qatar's led to just 59-53. The Qataris, however, proved too strong and maintained a 68-60 advantage close to the final buzzer, before Bahrain cut the losing margin to just four points in the end but could not get any closer. However the dissapointment of the game was the coaching. keeping Al Mutawa on the bench for most of the second half is like wanting to lose the game, Al Mutawa is our Tallest player and one of our most talented Bigman, so why keep him out of the game?
Hussain led the national team's valiant cause with 26 points including five triples, while Ghuloom pitched in with another 18 markers and Al Mutawa score 2 points and 6 rebounds in just 10 minutes of play".
Syria and Iraq officially withdrew today !