| Nasr dominates first half and never looks back |
Jan 21, 2008 |
Duha came into this game as the favourite but were without Farhan Abdi who has done a bit of everything this season and helped his team to an undefeated regular season. In the earlier meeting during the regular season, Duha won 69-65 but played the last eight minutes with only four players but still won – a humiliating defeat for Nasr that they surely would want to avenge.
Both teams started strong and traded baskets as Sherif Shehata was slashing through the Nasr defence for lay-ups. Duha was up 10-8 and seemed to be in a flow when the wheels fell off. Nasr went on a 15-2 run as Hakim Osman and Usman Chaudhry went on a tear and finished every chance they got. Duha was forced to call a timeout with 6:16 left in the half and down 23-12. The timeout did not seem to help as Nasr went on a 14-6 run for the rest of the half to take a 37-18 lead into halftime.
Nasr was led by Osman with 11 points, Usman with 10 points and Ibrahim Tiayumi with 5 points and 8 rebounds. Duha was led by Phillip Edwards with 6 points and Shehata with 5 points and 4 rebounds.
The second half saw Nasr continue to maintain their big lead as they traded baskets with Duha the rest of the way and slowed down their offensive possessions to eat up as much clock as possible. The end result was a 56-37 win for Nasr and a trip to the East League finals.
Osman led all scorers with 16 points while Chaudhry added 14 points. Tiayumi was a strong presence in the middle with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Duha was led by Edwards with 13 points.
Duha was unable to stop the big run for Nasr in the first half which led to their loss; multiple missed lay-ups throughout the game did not help their cause.
Nasr will move onto to face Al-Fil in the finals, in their earlier meeting during the regular season Nasr won by a 59-49 score so they would be expected to be the favourite. |
