| Featured Game Prediction Realized! |
Feb 8, 2007 |
When these teams met in the regular season in the final week, Humazah escaped with a 63-59 victory lead by Mohammed Sayeed, Sanel, and Seaton. After a disappointing start to the season, Humazah was looking to beat Kawthar in consecutive meetings and gain their pre-supposed place among the league's elite.
In my featured game preview, I wrote "Both teams feature excellent forwards in Martin and Mohammed and new to this season, both teams also feature top point guards, Sanel for Humazah and Greg for Kawthar. The guards are both veterans and will have to direct their respective teams; Kawthar has the edge in experience and maturity while Humazah has the x-factor in overall talent (only team in the league to have all 5 starters averaging double digits!). It will be up to Sanel to channel this talent positively in order for his team to win. Otherwise, if they fall back onto their poor habits from early in the season, they are sure to lose as Kawthar is too experienced not to capitalize on mistakes."
Seems I was right on all counts. Greg and Sanel did both lead their teams admirably in this playoff match-up, though Greg got the better of him on the scoresheet on this day. Both Martin and Mohammed figured largely in this game's outcome, as did the maturity of Kawthar and the poor habits of Humazah. As expected, the game was battle throughout, but Humazah players seemed to rely on their talent offensively rather than channel these talents towards the defensive end and allowed Kawthar to end the half up slightly 32-31. This was the case despite having 5 players that averaged double digits in the regular season and Kawthar having only 2. Thus the reference to Humazah's poor habits, which would ultimately come back to haunt them in the final outcome. Humazah was lead at the half by Amer's 15 pts and Seaton's 9 points while Kawthar was lead by Martin's 11pts and 6 rebs, Greg's 10 points, and Aravinthan's surprising 11pts. It appears that Humazah discounted Aravi's scoring ability and their chances were further hampered by both Sanel and Mohammed Sayeed being held scoreless (though it would be more likely because Sanel decided to direct his team and get all his teammates involved rather than dominate the ball).
In the 2nd half, Humazah thankfully started seeing some scoring from Sanel and Sayeed, chipping in 10 pts and 6 pts respectively in the 2nd half. However, Seaton and Amer's hot streaks seemed to end while Martin and Greg continued to pump in the buckets for their team. In the end, Kawthar pulled out the 70-64 win behind the expected output for Martin and Greg. The loss was a disappointing one for Humazah as they managed to get 4 players into double digits, but most noticeable was the low scoring game of Sayeed who finished with just 6 points, despite torching Kawthar for 23 pts in their regular season meeting. Kawthar now moves on to face Sharh. |
