These two teams met near the end of the regular season and Kursi managed to pull out the 34-23 victory but not without leaving some bad blood between some of the stronger and more vocal (i.e. easily angered) players of both teams. In that game, Kursi was lead by Darryl's 14 points while Qariyah didn't have any players score more than 6 points. As is typical with Qariyah all season, they managed to keep their opponents point total down with their aggressive defence but couldn't get on the scoreboard themselves (they were easily the lowest scoring team in the league, averaging just 28.5ppg).
But Qariyah knew that it was playoffs now and this game is what mattered. They would have to play their same aggressive D, but also find someone who would put the ball in hole for them. Both teams knew they had it rough today because the winner would have to play a second game a few hours later. Qariyah looked like they were going to get some help as 3 Kursi starters failed to show to the game (2 were backpacking in South America and the 3rd was just absent). Luckily for Kursi, they still had Razaq and Rami to put up points, and if Qariyah didn't step it up, those 2 Kursi players may be enough to outscore them.
Qariyah came out of the gates seemingly on a mission, particularly Hytham. He was driving to the basket aggressively and not shy to shoot the 3. Meanwhile, Qariyah was playing the type of defense that was expected of them and playing physical with Kursi, particularly with Razaq. The intensity of the game was evident in the quick tempers of some of the Qariyah players and the refs had to make sure to exert themselves to control the game. For Kursi, they just didn't seem to be able to get their offense going as Rami was bringing up the ball trying to play the role of distributor. The half ended with Qariyah up large and doubling their opponents 22-11. Qariyah couldn't be happier as they were almost at their season ppg average and it was only halftime, and they didn't sacrifice their defensive intensity. Qariyah was lead by Hytham with 8 pts while both Bilal and Amr chipped in with 6 pts each. Kursi was lead by Rami with 7 points.
In the 2nd half, the game didn't get much better for Kursi until late in the game; Qariyah was still scoring at a decent clip though Hytham was slowing down considerably. The game didn't start get interesting until the last 10 minutes when Rami realized that he could no longer afford to be the distributor and would have to become the contributor. Kursi changed strategies and had Razaq bring up the ball while Rami became the wing man. This strategy worked well as Rami started scoring in bundles. In fat, the game became so close that Razaq hit a surprising 3 (after a couple by Rami that brought the game closer) to cut Qariyah's lead down to 37-34. Luckily for Qariyah, Hytham and Kareem scored quick baskets to push the lead back up to 41-34. Kursi was forced to call a timeout with 3:46 left. Coming out of the timeout, Kursi continued its aggressiveness but with different results as Bilal came up with 2 huge blocks on shots by Rami; despite this, Kursi didn't give up as Aejaz hit a basket to cut the lead back down to 3 points. In the end however, Qariyah managed to hold on to the win, despite a strong closing effort by Kursi who showed heart as they were missing 3 starters. The game ended 45-40 with Qariyah lead by the Bayoumi brothers who both scored 12 points, while Kursi was lead by Rami's 25 points. |
