| Making the Most of their 2nd Chance? |
Jun 11, 2007 |
Technically, Kawthar didn't deserve to be in the playoffs due to their regular season record, but benefited from the Takathur's inability to fully pay their registration fees. Thus, Takathur was removed from the playoffs and Kawthar added. Kawthar didn't take this 2nd chance lightly as they even scheduled a practice prior to the game to make sure everyone was on the same page and to come up with some strategies against the league's best team this season. As with the day's 1st game, the 1st half was a well-paced one offensively. At the 4:25 mark, early in the game, a little scuffle broke out between Kawthar's Adeel and Humazah's Jermaine Brian, with Adeel getting hit with the technical foul. This showed what an intense game this would be. Humazah made this game a bit harder for themselves as Ismail Ismail, the league's MVP was not able to play today. At the 18:25 mark, Humazah's Saleh, the league's Most Improved Player, was also given a technical but for a delay of game. The 1st half ended with Humazah leading comfortably 34-24 and lead by Idris' 11 points. Meanwhile, Kawthar was lead by Martin's 10 points and 4 rebounds. Aside from Martin, Kawthar wasn't able to get any real offense from anyone. Martin seemed to be the only player able to do any damage but his team didn't pick up on it and make him the offensive focal point in the 1st half. For Humazah, Idris was more than supported from his teammates as 4 of the 6 players on the team scored at least 6 points in the 1st half.
The 2nd half started with Humazah making it even tougher for themselves as Saleh managed to pick up his 5th foul at only the 2:15 mark. At the 9:50 mark, frustration began setting on for Kawthar evidenced by Martin getting a rare technical, but Humazah's Tarek didn't capitalize as he missed both. With 7:14 remaining, Kawthar's Adeel was fouled out of the game after being called for a push-off from behind. So now Kawthar was down to Martin on offence as his teammates still hadn't made themselves threats that Humazah felt they needed to focus on. And as a result, Humazah, especially Idris took advantage. As the game came closer to ending, Humazah continued to play good team ball on offence as they passed the ball well looking for good shots, and at the same time, killing the clock.
The game ended with Kawthar unable to make the most of their 2nd chance as Humazah won 57-45 lead by Idris' 20 points and 6 rebounds. Kawthar was lead by Martin's 17 points and 12 rebounds. Humazah now faces Sharh in the semi-finals. |
