Recap
Final (10:00 AM-11:00 AM) Saturday, May 26, 2007
Al-Masad
Sharh
  1 2 T
Al-Masad (0-6-0) 31 23 54
Sharh (2-4-0) 31 30 61

Pride on the Line May 28, 2007
by Teepu Khawja  

The title can be applied to both teams. Entering this game, Sharh was on the bubble for the playoffs with only 1 win, while Al-Masad was playing to avoid becoming this season's only winless team. Both teams have players that are used to success on the court, and thus far cannot be happy with either of their team's play. To be honest, both teams played like it and many were surprised at the competitiveness of this game. Al-Masad began the game with a 9-o start in the 1st 3 minutes of the game, but Sharh managed to focus and followed with their own 9-0 lead to tie the game at the 4:30 mark. Sharh then managed to take their first lead of the game at the 8:15 mark by a score of 12-11. This game was a see-saw battle as you will see from this recap; the game was tied again at the 10 minute mark at 16-16.

Al-Masad's Naseer tied the game on a strong drive to the basket And-1 play at 22-22 at the 13:20 mark. For Al-Masad Imran was scrambling all over the place making plays off of steals, while Hassan of Sharh was SLICING through Al-Masad's defence for easy buckets. Al-Masad managed to retake the lead off Sultan's pair of FTs, up 24-22 at the 15:25 mark but Hassan managed to tie the game for Sharh again at 24-24 at the 17:00 mark. Naseer soon followed for his 2nd And-1 play of the half to tie the game at 28-28 with just 1:10 remaining in the game. The half ended tied at 31-31, which was only fair in such a tightly contested game. Al-Masad was lead by Sultan's 10 points and 4 rebounds as well as Imran's 4 steals. Sharh was paced by Hassan's 18 points.

The 2nd half was no different than the first. Sharh found themselves with a 38-35 lead at the 7:00 mark in the 2nd half. Despite signs that Al-Masad was starting to get into trouble by turning the ball over, failing to put the ball in the basket, and taking ill-advised shots in general, their substitute was waved off by a teammate as he tried to enter the game at the 9:40 mark; definitely not a good sign for Al-Masad. Al-Masad managed to ride the tide and after the substitution started to get their buckets consistently, unfortunately they could not contain Sharh defensively as Sharh answered each bucket with one of their own.

Al-Masad was forced to call a timeout with 12:13 remaining and down 43-50. As stated earlier, everytime Al-Masad made a dent in the lead, Sharh would quickly answer back; this was shown at the 16:30 mark when Yahya scored a 3 to bring his team to within 1 point, 50-51, but Sharh's Sife quickly scores a basket to bring the lead back to 53-50. In such a close game, both teams got a break as they both found themselves in the Bonus situation around the 2 minute mark. Neither managed to capitalize as Al-Masad was forced to call a timeout at the 19:37 mark down 54-60 and Sharh shooting FT's.

The game ended with Sharh winning 61-54, cementing their spot in the playoffs. Al-Masad has been eliminated from the post-season and will be forced to regroup for next season, while Sharh earned the right to face Al-Fil on June 9th in the 1st round (moved up in ranking due to Takathur's removal from the post-season from unpaid fees).