| The Only Undefeated Team? |
May 28, 2007 |
Short answer, "No". Humazah failed in its bid to become this season's only undefeated team. No doubt Quraysh's captain Usman took extra glee in that fact since his team was the only undefeated team last season. Of course, a loss could be a blessing for Humazah because Usman could also testify that his team didn't know how to handle a close game and thus faced their only loss in last season's championship game. May be better for Humazah to get it out of the way now, rather than later.
But if you just read the short answer, you would miss out on the details of a great game. But the game didn't start off great; Quraysh showed up with only 3 players and didn't manage to field a full squad of 5 until the 4:00 minute mark of the first half. In such an important game, it was lucky for Quraysh that they fielded their squad of 5 before the 5:00 mark because then they would have started the game down 5-0. The adrenaline form wondering where their players were must have carried over for Quraysh when the ball was tipped as they began the game on a 6-0 run before Humazah started to get into a rhythm. Humazah stayed close but was unable to take their first lead of the game until the 14:40 mark when they found themselves up 10-9 off of a Jermaine Brian lay-up; Jermaine was huge for his team this game and he followed his lay-up with a bigger 3-point play to increase his team's lead to 13-9 at the 15:20 mark. The game was back and forth for the remainder of the half; Humazah got a scare when Saleh rolled his ankle and the immediately subbed himself out of the game and limped out of the gym at the 18:20 mark. This injury seemed to rattle Humazah as they gave Humza an open 3 at the 18:55 mark to bring his team within 19-16, but then Humazah completely collapsed as they handed Quraysh 2 consecutive steals (one from Humza and the other from Rajko) resulting in a lay-up and a 3-pointer and a 23-21 halftime lead for Quraysh. Quraysh was lead at the half by Usman with 8 points and Rajko with 12 points while Humazah was paced by Jermaine with 11 points.
The 2nd half saw Quraysh continue to put the pressure on Humazah as Rajko hit two consecutive 3-pointers from the corner. Baskets were traded and Sharh, already with no bench, found themselves in a bit of a jam as Anis picked up 2 fouls less than 2 minutes into the half. Quraysh found themselves up 33-30 at the 4:10 mark, due primarily to Rajko who was on fire, hitting 4 straight shots. The score was 38-34 for Quraysh at the 7:28 point, and Anis picked up his 4th foul shortly after at the 8:36 mark. It must be pointed out that Saleh did return for Humazah in the 2nd half and was playing strong, as if he was never hurt in the first place. His play helped Humazah cut the lead to the 43-40 at the 11:35 mark and then tie the game at 44-44 off of Tarik's drive at the 13:10 mark. In fact, Humazah was finally able to take the lead at 14:12 after one of Saleh's many drives to the basket.
Foul trouble played a role in this game as both teams found themselves in the penalty at the 16:30 mark. It must be said now that both team's free throw shooting in the bonus was terrible, and one team failed to cement the game when it was up in the air for either to take. First, Gamada was able to make 1-2 FTs at the 17:00 mark to give his squad the 47-46 lead. Tarik soon fouled out at 17:55 with his team down 49-48, but Gamada was again only able to hit 1-2 FTs to put his team up 50-48. When Humazah had the chance to shoot bonus FTs, Jermaine missed the front-end of his 1-and-1 but Saleh managed to get the ball off of the rebound and make a 3-point play to bring his team closer at 53-54, but Humazah felt the need to use their timeout at the 18:44 mark.
Nearing the end of the game, Saleh managed to get to the line in bonus at 19:20 but also misses the front-end, and then finds himself in the same situation at the 19:30 mark which has the same result and his team still down 53-55. With a chance to build his team's lead, Rajko misses the front-end of his 1-and-1 and Quraysh is forced to call a timeout at 19:48 with a slim 55-53 lead. The game ends at 56-53 for Quraysh after Gamada was able to hit 1-2 FTs and Humazah was unable to hit a 3 at the buzzer.
The game doesn't affect Humazah's 1st place finish and they will face Kawthar in the 1st round while Quraysh has a tough match-up against Nasr. |
