| The Bubble Bursts For Al-Masad |
Jan 15, 2008 |
Thanks to Ahmed Rashwan's heroics in their last game Al-Masad had the pleasure of squaring up against the potent team of Duha. As exciting as the last game was Al-Masad would have to double their efforts in this quarter-final match if they want to ensure a victory.
The game started off with Al-Masad scoring 4 early points. That didn't deter Farhan Abdi who took things into his own matter right away as he quickly scored some of his own baskets. Following some sloppy turnovers and ball handling by Al-Masad, Duha put a 10 point run together forcing Al-Masad to call a time-out with just 4:30 played. The time-out made no difference. Duha was for real.
There was just too much offense dished out by Duha. Sherif Shehata was on his game spreading the floor and setting his teammates up with easy baskets. Duha's big men Abdul Bari Yousufi, Philip Edwards, and Rudy Senaltingam were menacing on the boards taking away many second chance opportunities for Al-Masad. In fact Duha outboarded Al-Masad in the first half 25-18. Scoring down low became a nuisance for Al-Masad so they tried to rely on the long bomb, however that strategy didn't work either as Al-Masad shot a terrible 1-10. By the time the half ended Duha was leading 24-13.
The second half was no better for Al-Masad but it certainly was Adeel Sahibzada. After being shut down with only 7 first half points, Adeel absolutely went nuts in the second half scoring 20 points. It was a good thing he did otherwise the score would have been much worse. There was no letting up from Duha. The foot was firmly pressed on the pedal and they sailed to a 65-47 point victory. Adeel led all players with 27 points and tossed in 13 rebounds for good measure. Abdul Bari also finished with a double double with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Other than Rudy, all players on Duha finished with double-digit scoring. Even more remarkable was that Duha finished with 13 steals, 6 of which belong to Farhan Abdi.
A fun season for Al-Masad now comes to an end. As for Duha they will now await the winner of the Nasr and Sharh game and look for their chance to advance to finals. |
